Scooby Doo: Then and Now
by Michel Ascott
Summary: Ten years ago, Mystery Inc had their final case. Now, they are being brought back together to solve a new mystery. But has the gang grown too far apart from each other to continue as they were? Has new relationships doomed this new version of Mystery Inc before it even really begins? Can you go home again?
1. Chapter 1

Scooby Doo: Then And Now

Episode One: An Ending and a Beginning

Then:

"Jinkies!" Velma Dinkley was astonished by what she had just found. There was a ten dollar bill, or at least the printing plate that would be needed to make a ten dollar bill. It was an obvious counterfeiting scheme, and this told her everything that she needed in order to figure out who was really behind this plot and why.

She had been doing this for years, and was quite good. It was odd, when she was younger, her friends and her would accidentally unmasked someone pretending to be a monster. It was the first of many. All their lives, no matter where they seemed to go, there was someone pretending to be a ghost or ghoul, trying to keep people away from their land for oil, money, or other riches, and they always made the same basic mistake, they tried it around Velma and her friends, Mystery Inc.

Velma had no idea that this was the last case that they would work on together. There were clues, but those bespectacled eyes that could see the smallest and least significant detail when it came to catching bad guys in masks, somehow managed to miss an important detail in her own life. The gang was growing up and they were all off on their own paths. Daphne and Freddie were off to Darrow College. She knew that, and they knew that she wasn't going to join them. She got a full ride through Duke and that wasn't something that she was going to be able to pass up. Shaggy and Scooby were going down to Georgia to spend time with his Uncle Nathaniel.

"Like, what did you find?" Shaggy Rogers asked her. He was long and lanky and she had to admit, there was something that she found cute about him when they were younger. Now? Now they were too close to have anything romantic happen between them. It would be like dating her brother.

"I found these plates. They are used to make phony bills." She smiled as she looked at the plate. "So we have the what they were doing. Now we just need to catch them."

"Do you know the who?"

She nodded slowly. "Oh yeah, I know exactly who is behind this. Now we just need to make sure that Freddie can come up with a trap that will let us capture the baddie behind this." Each member of the group played their own role. She was certain that the group wouldn't be able to operate without them all. When it came time to figure out the who and what, that was her job. Freddie was the leader and he was the one who always managed to come up with the plans and the traps. Shaggy and Scooby were the bait. They were the fastest and they were the ones who lead the ghosts into traps. And Daphne was the glue that held the group together. Over the years, Mystery Inc had made a few changes to their line up, but it always came back to those five.

Shaggy shivered slightly. "Like, no way man! I know exactly where this is going, and I'm not going to have anything to do with that!"

"Reah!" Scooby said shaking his head slowly.

Velma sighed. She knew exactly where this was going to lead. She reached into her backpack and smiled. "Would you do it for a Scooby Snack?" Scooby's personal brand of dog treats were the favored treat not just of the Great Dane but also of his owner as well.

Scooby and Shaggy leaned their heads together and whispered to each other. Shaggy pulled his head up. "Nope. Two. Each."

Velma grinned as she threw out two Scooby Snacks to them. Suddenly, Freddie came into the room from another part of the house. "Where's Daphne?" He asked them.

Velma and Shaggy exchanged glances. "We thought she was with you." It looked like they had another mystery on their hands.

Now:

Velma Dinkley had gone off to school and got a P.H.D. in Folklore and Psychology. And now? Now she hunts ghosts. Well, that's what some would say. Velma wouldn't. Velma had earned the nickname "Spooky" from her co-workers because of her desire to experience something that was really haunted, something that defied explanation, and she hadn't found it yet. But that wasn't for a sincere lack of trying. She wasn't sure if she was impressed by their using a X-Files reference or sad.

She had a TV show that lead her around the country investigating haunted houses and the like, but all it really did for her was to prove that there wasn't anything else out there. Men in masks, pretending to be something that they were not in order to chase people away from things that they had no right to. It was the same thing, no matter where she went, and Velma was starting to lose faith that she would ever find anything.

"So, what brings us to New Jersey?" Her camera man, Ned Burchill, asked with a grin. "Is it the wonderful smells or the fun times to be had on the boardwalk?"

Velma rolled her eyes playfully. "Neither. We're here to look for the Jersey Devil."

Ned nodded as he looked at his camera. He signed up with Velma two years ago in order to help with the network. They didn't believe in the show, but Ned did. He was happy to be part of the show, and he had to admit that Velma's snarkiness had grown on him over the years. And the way that she had that crooked smile and the way that her eyes lit up when she found a clue. And that was all before she ever said the word, "Jinkies." When she did that, he couldn't stop smiling. It was what he lived for each day.

This season they made a slight change. The producer for the show had decided that he wanted to get more hands on with the process and he invited himself along on the show. "Ghosts Across America" had a new format. There was going to be a counter point with the producer, J.J. Hakimoto, on every episode. Ned figured that J.J. was just going to get in the way, but that wasn't his decision, he knew that the orders came from his boss. So be it. "Alright Velma, what are we up to today?"

"Well, we are going to go to Pine Barrens and we are going to look into the Jersey Devil." She smiled softly and Ned raised an eyebrow.

"What are you not telling me?"

"Oh, well, the Jersey Devil is believed to live in…"

Suddenly the door to the van flew open and Ned and Velma turned to look at J.J at the door. "Really, Dinkley? The sewers?"

Ned turned around and looked at Velma. "The sewer? You are going to drag me into the sewers?" He sighed as he looked at the camera. "We're going to need to get some flashlights. This will be fun."

Velma smirked. "Isn't sarcasm my forte?"

Ned shrugged. "Was thinking I would give it a try."

Velma nodded slowly. She had found herself growing fonder of Ned as the time went by. At first she thought that his stubbornness was annoying, but it was starting to grow on her as she realized that it was actually him believing in something so much that he would fight for it. "Well, looks like we've got a plan for tomorrow."

Then:

She had been called Danger Prone Daphne, and it was quality that Daphne Blake was showing right now. She and Freddie had split off from the rest of the group when she had stumbled, and pressed her hand down on a statue of a small dog. The dog's head had pressed inward and the entire floor by the bookcase had slid downwards, and she fell hard. As she stood, she saw for a brief moment the Lochester Demon. He was big and scaly and...limp?

She raised an eyebrow as she made her way over to the monster and gently prodded him. To her surprise, the pointed eared head that was full of fangs collapsed off the shoulders of the beat and to the ground. "It's a costume?"

She leaned down and picked up the head. It had seemed terrifying just a few minutes ago didn't bother her at all now. She looked inside the now headless costume and stared at the inside. There was some sort of odd systems of pulleys inside. Daphne wasn't the smart one of the group, but she could tell that the way this was set up explained the odd movements of the creature's arms, how they didn't seem to bend correctly. It also explained how the creature could have four arms. The bottom two were well the regular arms went into, and the pulleys controlled the top two arms. And oddly enough, in the left hand, the pinky finger was stuffed.

"I wish Velma was here, I bet she'd know just what to do," Daphne muttered as she looked around and shivered. "Okay, you are on your own and the way you came up is ten feet above you. Now is the time for you to follow the...dimly lit cave and find the other way out."

Daphne knew that she had discovered a vital clue. She felt certain that this creature wasn't a real monster before that. After all, how could she? She had unmasked near a hundred people pretending to be something that they weren't and she hadn't seen any evidence of anything supernatural. She had been asked countless times why she ran from these things when she was faced with them if she knew that they weren't real. She went back to thinking about the creature's gloved hands that ended in sharp razor blades and wondered why anyone wouldn't want to run. Just because these things weren't really monsters didn't mean that they weren't really out to hurt her. And she had been kidnapped by enough of them to know how dangerous they could really be.

The thought really irked her. Her friends called her danger prone and she was sure that she had heard Velma mutter, "Of course Daphne has been kidnapped again," the last time that a ghost had grabbed her. People would say that she was the heart of the team, but was that how her friends really saw her?

Velma was brilliant, she was younger than the rest of them, but she had skipped several grades. She always had a level head and no small level of sarcasm whenever the rest of the gang got distracted. The only reason she wasn't the leader of the group was because while she had a keen mind, she wasn't always the most people oriented person.

That was clearly Freddie. He was the leader of the group and brilliant in his own right. He made all the traps, he did everything right. He knew how to use people to their fullest while making them feel like an important part of the team. He was also dreamy. Daphne didn't always think that way about him, but lately, these thoughts came into her mind more and more.

She didn't feel that way about Shaggy though. Maybe at one time, that summer Velma and Freddie were gone, but now they had a deep friendship. How couldn't they? She understood what he was; brave when he needed to be, but a coward at heart. She saw that more than the others did in him.

But what did the others see in her? Was she the damsel that had to be rescued? This was going to be the last time. Going forward, she was going to be somebody that could take care of herself.

She paused in the cavern. Did she just hear Freddie's voice?

Now:

Daphne Blake worked as a news reporter for the Crystal Cove WLCC news station. She was only a weekend anchor, but not anything important. Nancy always seemed to block any real path that moved her upwards. Daphne had some idea as to why, but she didn't see how that was at all her fault. But she knew if she continued to do a good job there was no way that she would be ignored for long. But would she have to leave Crystal Cove to get a real break?

It wasn't the first time that she had thought about leaving Crystal Cove. When she was in college, she gave real thought about leaving. Mystery Inc had just broken up for good, they had tried a few times to make it up over the phone, but their hobby was not one that allowed anything other than face to face interactions. In fact, the only one that she saw at all was Fred Jones.

There was always chemistry between the two of them, everyone could see that, but when they actually went out a few times, honestly, Daphne didn't feel it. When they broke up they tried to stay friends, but it didn't work. That was when she tried to determine whether she should leave the town. But something came up.

That something was someone that came up next to her as she stood outside the news station. "Hey babe!" The red haired man said as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Daphne looked up with a soft smile and leaned her head on his shoulders. "Hey Rhett. What are you doing here?"

"Came to wish my lady love a good day at work. Do you want to go off for lunch today?"

Fifteen years ago had you told her that her life was going to go down this path, she wouldn't have believed it. She had known Rhett Herring for most of her life, but when she was younger, he made her life miserable. Not just her life but the lives of her friends as well. When she knew him back in the day he didn't go by his birth name, instead he went by a name that was inspired by his flaming red hair, Red Herring. The fact that Fred always thought that he was the person pretending to be the monster was not lost on her.

"I would love to do lunch today." When he smiled at her, she knew that she made the right call when she said yes to him. They had dated for three years when he finally proposed to her, at the spot of their first date. When she saw him in her journalism class, she felt like she had met him for the first time. When they were in high school, he was sent off to military school and those four years radically changed him. Gone was the bully who tormented others for his own pleasure and in his stead was a man who genuinely cared about others. "But I'm not sure when or where I'll be."

"Nancy's making you do on the scene reporting again?"

Daphne sighed. Nancy was the constant thorn in her side. No matter what happened, she was always there to stop Daphne from accomplishing her goals. And to think, Nancy thought she was competing against Daphne for something that Daphne had long since stopped looking for. Had Nancy just been more confident in herself, none of this may have been an issue, but Nancy was always measuring herself up to the red headed Daphne Blake. Daphne didn't see a competition, but Nancy did. A competition for the love of Fred Jones.

Then:

Fred Jones was distraught. This wasn't the first time that Daphne had been taken hostage, far from it. But whenever it happened, he was always concerned, but he did have the foresight to see what was coming, even if Velma didn't. It didn't take long for Velma and Fred to come to terms with what had happened. Fred had an idea of exactly what had happened to Daphne. She went missing when they were in the library. There was a secret passage somewhere because there always was. Nothing that they hadn't dealt with before. But that also meant something else, there was another passage there.

Fred had seen this too many times to be worried about that. If Daphne had just fallen into a trap, she would be able to find the other end. But he figured that he could help with that. "Daphne!" He yelled out. It wasn't the first time. It wouldn't be the last time. But he knew that it would be the last time he called it out like this. "Daphne!"

He led the group away from the library and they were heading down the hallway, when Scooby's ears perked up. "Rear that?"

Fred stopped and listened. Scooby's ears were always better than everyone else's. "What is it, Scoob?"

Scooby motioned towards the wall. "Raphne."

Fred leaned over and pressed his ear against the wall. Sure enough, he could hear faintly Daphne yelling out his name. He reached along the wall until he managed to find a brick that seemed to be loose. "Hey gang," he said motioning towards the brick, "I think I found something. Stand back." He pressed the brick inwards, and as soon as he did, the wall swung away revealing a secret passage and something else, Daphne!

"Like, am I glad to see you!" Shaggy said as he rushed forward and gave her a hug. Fred felt something twinge inside of him, but he wasn't sure what it was. But he did reach over and put a hand on both of their shoulders.

"Alright gang, now that we're all back together, we need to make sure that we figure out what's next."

"Well," Velma said stepping forward, "I think we need to examine our clues."

"Oh! I nearly forgot," Daphne said, "I found the Lochester Demon!"

"He's in the tunnels?" Fred asked confused.

"Well, part of him is." She looked at the confusion that went over all of their faces. "He's not a real demon." She added that for the sake of the others.

"Of course he's not," Velma muttered only loud enough that Scooby and Fred was going to hear her.

"I found his costume. And the weird thing is he has one of his fingers stuffed."

"The pinky on his left hand?" Velma asked.

As Daphne nodded Fred looked over at Velma. "I take it that you know who's behind all of this?"

Velma nodded. "I certainly do. However, in order to give the police any real proof, we're going to have to catch him."

Fred grinned as broadly as he always did in these moments. "Well, that means it must be trapping time! And do I have a trap that will help us out with that." He paused. "But I need to make sure that we have the proper bait."

Shaggy sighed as everyone turned to look at him. "Like, do I even wanna know?"

Now:

Fred Jones had gone through college and he managed to get his degree in something useful. When he was younger, he had wanted to be able to use his trap making skills to design and build useful things. However, that wasn't going to go anywhere and he knew it. But he had another skill set that was particularly useful, he knew every inch of the Mystery Machine.

He had loved that van in a way that most people never loved a car. He did his best work ever on that wonderful vehicle and he learned every thing that he could about cars because of that. It turned out that he was able to make nearly any car hum and it turned out that he was a wonderful mechanic because of that. It was how he made his living.

His shop was painted in a very familiar green, blue and orange. It was called the Mystery Mechanic. The name probably didn't win as many people as it may have if it was called Fred Jones' Auto Shop or something along those lines, but he wanted something to connect to his past life.

As opposed to the other members of Mystery Inc, he looked back at the world they left behind as the best years of his life. He had a new life and he knew that there wasn't going to be any way that they would ever return to what they had, but there were nights when he laid awake and stared at ceiling wishing that he could go back to where he was before.

He felt guilty about that. He hated how he felt about this life. He didn't want to feel like this. He felt like he was betraying her.

He knew that he had a life that most guys would've killed for. He was successful in his career, owned his own business, had no major bills to speak of and he had a beautiful fiancée. In fact, his fiancée was the most beautiful woman in all of Crystal Cove. That wasn't his opinion, that was from a vote from the viewers of WLCC television.

Nancy Chang was tall with pale blue eyes and long black hair. She walked like a woman whose destiny lay in her own hands, which it certainly did. She was the in charge of on air personalities and she made sure that she always got the lion's share of the work. She also made sure that her greatest enemy in life, Daphne Blake, didn't get ahead of her. She was afraid of Daphne. Terribly afraid.

And the reason for that was the same reason that Fred Jones stayed awake at night. He was still desperately in love with Daphne. When they decided to stop dating, it wasn't his decision. You always hear that these kind of break ups are mutual, but they never are. Daphne. Believed that it was the decision that they both made, but it wasn't. The first day that they went out, Fred had gone out and got an engagement ring. But it was not meant to be.

Nancy and him met in a history class, and they hit it off. Nancy was on the prowl, and she did what she always did. When she wanted something, she went directly at it. She asked him out for coffee and next thing that Fred knew he had a live in girlfriend. But that was as far as they ever made it. He knew that it was driving Nancy crazy, because she was dropping not so subtle hints about what she wanted out of life, that she wanted to get married, but Fred wasn't budging. He certainly loved her. But she wasn't Daphne Blake.

He sighed as he watched Nancy on the news and sadly shook his head. He wasn't sure how his life ended up like this. Once upon the time, he was in charge. People followed him. But now? Now he realized that he wasn't the leader of a group any more, nor was he the leader of his own life. It was funny. In times like this, when he was at his bleakest, he realized that he was really jealous of someone else. Not Rhett Herring but instead of Shaggy Rogers.

Then:

Shaggy Rogers looked down at his best friend for years, Scooby Doo and sighed. "Scoob, remind me, how did I get talked into doing this?"

Shaggy asked the question, but he knew for a fact how it happened. It was the same exact way that it always happened. Shaggy and Scooby was the fastest. That had a lot to do with the fact that they were the most afraid. Sure, every single monster and ghost that they had ever came across had been fake, but that didn't mean that the next one was about to be fake as well. There was a gambler's fallacy there, and Shaggy knew it. You can't base what is happening now based on what happened in the past. Those two things are not related. Besides, those things were really scary whether they were real or not.

Now they had done this song and dance a lot. Scooby and him were going to go out and get the attention of the monster. It would chase them and they would lead it into the trap that Fred had carefully laid out for it. From that point, it was about a fifty/fifty chance that the trap would go right. It was also equally likely that Shaggy and Scooby were going to be so afraid that they were going to forget what they were actually supposed to do and was going to trip the trap themselves. At this point, Shaggy had to wonder if Fred just thought that it was funny to send them out and see what horrible things happened. But it was going to be the last time.

Scooby and Shaggy were not going to college. Instead they were going to go and see his Uncle Nathaniel and see what he would be able to do for them. School was never their thing and now it was time for them to move onto whatever they were going to do. The rest of the gang had bright futures, and what was Shaggy going to do with his life? He wanted to become a chef, but there was a small problem associated with that. He couldn't=t stop eating the food long enough to actually have it judged.

So this was going to be their last run. He took a deep breath and he pushed Scooby out into the open. His dog gave him a slightly hurt look, but it didn't last as Shaggy joined him very quickly as well. "Like, I guess it's safe to go home, Scoob. I mean, Daphne found the costume; we all know that he's a fake. He's gonna have gone home. Betcha anything."

"Right, Raggy!" His dog was terrified. Anyone with a brain could see that. They should've held out for more Scooby Snacks. Why did they never do that?

These thoughts weren't going to last too long as the four armed Lochester Demon came out. "I told you all to get out!"

"Like, trust us, we totally want to!" With that, Shaggy and Scooby took off. It was their normal routine and they still despised it. Daphne had the money and Velma had the brains and Fred was leader and all Shaggy and Scooby brought was the speed. If they had any gumption, they may have been able to go out to the Olympics. But their speed was only in proportion to how afraid that they were. If there was a monster chasing them, then they would've won gold. Otherwise, they would've been lapped, even in a race that didn't involve laps. They just didn't care about it.

This was a rare moment for them. They turned the corner rapidly, and the monster was now in danger, as when it turned the corner, Velma let go of her rope, which lead to a giant fly swatter smacking it in the head. As it stumbled forward, it fell into a small pit. This was Daphne's cue to let go of her rope, and a large net came down over top of the Demon.

Shaggy grinned as he came to a halt, and the rest of the gang came out to celebrate. "Great work, gang!" Fred said, for what was going to be the last time.

Now:

Shaggy Rogers had left ten years ago in order to go and live with his Uncle Nathaniel. And that was exactly where he lived even to this day. And he thought that he was bothering his uncle about it, but he wasn't sure. Today he was doing what he did every Tuesday night; he was watching Velma on the television. He wasn't alone, he was sitting in the living room, in a vibrating recliner, with his favorite snacks in front of him. Every Tuesday, he would order from his favorite pizza place, though lately he realized that he would no sooner call the pizza place than there would be a knock at his door. It was starting to happen nearly at the same time. His Uncle and his dog were always there every week. It was about the only time that his uncle didn't look at him with disappointment.

Uncle Nat pointed towards the screen. "She's an old friend of your's, right?"

Shaggy nodded slowly. "Yep. Like, Velma and me go way back. We graduated together!"

Nathaniel nodded slowly. "And now she's a big time TV star, huh? I bet that would be really cool. That's a thing you kids are saying right, cool?"

Shaggy shook his head. "Naw, we say things like groovy."

Nathaniel rubbed the top of his head. "Are you sure? That sounds like things that we all said back in my day."

Shaggy shook his head. His uncle was so far behind the times that it wasn't even funny. Shaggy was happy with the way that his life was going. It was everything that he really wanted out of life. And the best part was that they only time that he ever got scared was watching Velma. In fact, he would call her after every episode. This time it was a marathon. He was going to be able to see her over and over and over. It was like old times without having to run around like a crazy person. He didn't want to run for his life. He always hated that part of the job the most.

Nathaniel raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you kids hang out with Mama Cass Elliot once?"

Shaggy laughed and poked his dog softly. "You get that? He had to go and bring up Cass Elliot?"

Scooby laughed. "I ruv her!"

"Oh, I did too," Shaggy said with a grin, Abut let's be clear, Uncle, like, she died waaaay before I was born."

His uncle titled his head as he looked at his free loading nephew. "I was sure that you had mentioned her once."

"I probably had. I always thought that she was groovy. But that's like asking me if I had met Don Knotts or Don Adams!" Shaggy rolled with laughter, but his uncle didn't seem to be happy with him.

"You shouldn't make fun of your family." His uncle stood and stretched. "Norville," he never called him by his preferred name. Shaggy was named for Nathaniel's father and Uncle Nat felt that it was an insult to his father to not use the name, "I think I'm gonna turn in for the night. Don't stay up too late." He wasn't sure why he said that, he knew that his nephew wasn't going to do anything tomorrow. Or the day after that. Or the day after that. It didn't matter.

Shaggy nodded as he watched Velma on the screen. Scooby may have been happy with him, but it was pretty clear that something was going to have to change soon. Granted, Shaggy didn't know how soon. And he wasn't at sure why he was constantly thinking about the final adventure with his friends.

Then:

The gang stood around and looked directly at the captured Demon. "So like, who is it?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Velma asked with a big grin.

"If it was, I wouldn't be asking, man." Shaggy was easily annoyed with Velma over things like this. Just because something was obvious to her didn't mean that it was obvious to the rest of them. Granted, he knew something that she didn't, and she would've been highly annoyed to realize that.

"Well, my first clue was that the person left only nine fingerprints on the printing plate, not ten."

"So they only touched it with nine fingers?" Fred asked confused.

"Well, I was thinking that a bit myself. However, it was Daphne who found the last clue we needed when she found the suit."

Daphne nodded. "It made sense and it matched up with the print. There was a fake finger in one of the gloves. Which told us something important about our culprit, they only had nine fingers!"

"But, like, we haven't met anyone with just nine fingers," Shaggy said as he scratched his head.

"Oh yes we have," Velma said.

Fred raised an eyebrow. "You're going to have to clue the rest of us in, Velmster, I don't think I can name anyone that we saw with just nine fingers."

Velma reached down and grabbed the top of the mask before she gave it a hard grab, revealing a young man barely older than they were. "Harry West?" The gang said in unison.

"Like wait just one minute! Harry has all of his fingers!" Shaggy said waving his hands in the air.

Velma shook her head. "I thought so at first as well. But when he was talking with us, he kept twisting the ring on that finger. And that's when I noticed that his entire finger moved. I just didn't say anything to the rest of you all because I thought it would've been rude to point it out. But once I saw the nine fingers, I felt pretty good about who was the Demon."

"One thing I don't understand," Daphne said, "is why did he even bother doing all of this in the first place?"

"That's easy," Fred said. "He was using this to print fake money. And if we all were around, we might've heard it. Printing money isn't quiet and he needed to keep people away."

They called the police and normally they would give their account and drive away in the Mystery Machine. But this time, it was different. This time, none of them seemed to be in a big hurry to get into the Mystery Machine. They stayed and talked for hours before they sadly got into the van.

Even then, they didn't go home. They went to an all night pizza joint. They went out and got some ice cream. They parked along the river and looked out at the stars. In short, they did everything they could to prolong this. Velma was leaving in the morning. Shaggy would be catching a bus the day after that. This was all coming to an end, it was pretty clear to all of them, even Velma who was trying to deny that anything was changing. This group was coming to an end. But an end did come. Eventually, Velma was dropped off at the airport. She said her goodbyes to the group and promised to see them in the summer. But strangely, she told Shaggy that anytime she needed help, she would come to see him. It was odd but comforting.

Now:

Shaggy stretched out his legs as he stood up. He was ready for his pizza snack. His uncle had long since gone to bed and his faithful companion was taking his fourth nap of the day. Scooby needed his energy to stay strong for their pizza. Shaggy figured it was about time to order it and he reached for the phone, but something made him pause. That something was a light that was in the driveway. He knew that the pizza guys were able to meet him almost as soon as he made the call, but they had never shown up before he made the call. These guys were getting good!

He didn't want to wake Scooby, the smell of the pizza was going to be enough to do that, and he knew that no matter what happened, Scooby always ended up getting the lion's share of the food. It happened every single time.

He walked to the door, but trepidation started to sit in. Something about the night seemed off. Thunder crackled in the air and he was sure that whatever waited on the other end of the door was nothing good. But then again, he did think that the mailman was part of a spy ring trying to steal his uncle's house, a childhood of chasing men dressed as ghosts had that effect on a man. But this was something else, something deeper. Shaggy sighed as a flash of lightning lit up the night sky.

There was a knock on the door that sent chills up his spine. He nearly ran deeper into the mansion, but he remembered that this was just the pizza guy, just like it was every Tuesday. There was nothing to be afraid of when it came to the pizza guy. In fact, like, that was the best guy in the entire world. He reached for the doorknob and froze. He hadn't actually ordered a pizza this time.

But that didn't matter, they had been matching him. Why not beat him? Why not? He was just being silly, right? He closed his eyes and sighed again. He reached down and grabbed the handle. With a sharp turn, he pulled the door open just as another bolt of lightning lit up the sky, momentarily blinding him. When his eyes adjusted, he was both happy and sad to see what was standing in front of him. Then he was mortified.

He was sad because it wasn't the pizza guy. That meant that he did not have magic pizza powers and had to actually place the order like normal. It was a bit of a let down, but he would never admit it.

He was happy because while it wasn't the pizza guy, it was someone he knew very well, Velma Dinkley. He hadn't seen his friend in a very long time. She went through college and became a big time TV star. And he was still loafing around his uncle's house. Some things didn't seem to change.

He was mortified because of the state that she was in. She had never been the one in the group to go out and get sun normally, that was Daphne and Fred, but she was paler than usual. If Velma wouldn't have mocked him for it, he would say that she had seen a ghost. But the thing that really drew his attention was the fact that her familiar orange sweater had splattering of blood on it. Whatever was going on, it was a big deal.

He didn't really have time to fully understand what she meant when she said, "We need help," which should've sent off a lot of warning bells for him, but instead, all he did was catch her as she fell forward


	2. Scooby Doo: Then and Now: Episode 2

Scooby Doo: Then and Now

Episode Two: Decisions

Then:

Velma was not comfortable in front of the camera, even though it never showed. She took her glasses off and cleaned them for what must've been the sixth time, and sighed. This was a normally thing, and her camera man, Ned Burchill, didn't say a word. He never had. He knew what Velma needed to do to accomplish her goals. She was terrified, but this would fix it for her.

But he wasn't the only person there. Velma was standing in front of a sign that said, "Welcome to Pine Barrens, NJ" and the day was slightly overcast. So was the other man's mood. Ned wasn't a large man, 5'9 or so, weighing about 160, but he towered over the much smaller Velma. The other man towered over Ned. J.J. Hakimoto was nearly 6'5 and was around 230 pounds. He wasn't dressed like the others at all. Velma wore an orange turtle neck and a red skirt. She hadn't changed her style of clothing much at all since high school. She wore different stuff when she wasn't on camera, but she felt most comfortable in these clothes. Ned was dressed in blue jeans and a t-shirt that said "Ghosts Across America" and the logo of the TV show that they filmed. J.J. wore a suit and a tie. He looked like he wasn't comfortable out like they were and was clearly better suited for an office building instead of being outside in the wind. And he would not stop tapping his foot and rubbing his hands together.

"Can we help you with something," Ned said bitterly. He knew he needed to watch his tongue; after all, Velma was the star. She was the one that would be hard to replace. He was just the guy who grabbed a camera and pointed it.

"Why hasn't she started to talk yet," he whispered, trying to not to distract Velma.

"We always do this. She'll clean her glasses between six and twelve times, and then she'll hop back and forth from foot to foot then she gives me the sign to go on."

"She looks like she's going to be sick," J.J. said with a bit more concern than Ned thought he would have. "Is she going to vomit?"

"Probably after we're done." Ned grinned. "Don't worry though; it'll all be done in one shot. That's why we call her One-Shot Dinkley!"

J.J. opened his mouth to mutter that they were wasting day light when he realized that they weren't. It was overcast, and he was confused about how Ned was going to get enough light to make the shot. He didn't say any of these things as Velma had finished hopping back and forth and gave a big thumbs up.

As soon as she saw the camera rolling, the nervous, bookish looking woman seemingly vanished. In her place was a confident young woman who was regarded as one of the premier folklorists in the entire world. She was smiled slightly and began to speak. "It was said that Mother Leeds had twelve children, and upon finding out that she was pregnant a 13th time, stated that this one would be the devil."

J.J. barely hid his snort. Of course it was the 13th child. Why would it not be?

"It was on a night much like this, in 1735 that she gave birth in the middle of a thunderstorm."

Now this J.J. understood. Even if it didn't rain tonight, they could splice in shots of it raining. And the symmetry made for some good TV.

"Rumor has it that Mother Leeds was a witch, and she had bred with the Devil himself. And was this 13th child the spawn of Satan or Satan himself, is the question that is never fully answered. What is agreed on, is that this child was born normal, but almost immediately after his birth, he grew bat wings, hooves, a forked tail, giant claws and a goat head. He killed the midwife and flew out of the house. Shortly after, a priest did an exorcism that held for 150 years. The monster was not seen again until 1890."

J.J. was enthralled. He couldn't help it. The way that Velma delivered the information made for an interesting listen. He didn't believe any more in the Jersey Devil, but he believed others did.

"And over the last one hundred plus years, there have been sightings of the Jersey Devil in the Pine Barrens area. And that is what we are hunting today!

Now:

Shaggy Rogers was worried. One of his best friends in the entire world, Velma Dinkley, showed up at his house and collapsed into his arms. Now, in his great-uncle's old mansion, he had found an extra room and put her into the bed. It was dusty in the room, and there was chance that no one had been in there in a very long time, but the bed was comfy and the room was dry. Given the way that it was storming and the level of dampness in her orange sweater, Shaggy was sure that the warmness was the best thing for her. He had dressed her under the blankets and had a fire roaring in the fire place. There was a chair that was in front of the bed and Shaggy was sitting there. He had dressed to go to sleep, with a pale red striped shirt, solid red pants and a sleep cap on his head that was also red and white striped. But he wasn't looking at Velma, he was staring holes through a man who was covered in mud and worse.

"So, who are you?"

The question was directed towards the man who had accompanied Velma. Shaggy was so distracted by his friend that he missed the man at first. But now, Ned Burchill had his complete attention. "My name is Ned." He sounded exhausted, and closed his eyes. His jeans were torn, there was mud that had formed what looked like a second skin over his body, and his head had a small gash in it, the blood having long since dried. "I'm her camera man."

Shaggy continued to glare, and he was joined in this by Scooby Doo. His faithful friend was sitting on the floor next to him, glaring at Ned, nearly daring him to make any sudden moves. "Like, what happened?"

Ned had spoken to Shaggy before on the phone. They had never met prior to this time, but Ned was under the impression that Shaggy and his large dog were utter cowards. And they probably were most of the time. But seeing one of their friends like this, it seemed to trigger something inside of them. Not that Ned cared. He had been traveling for hours through what seemed like a never ending storm and he wasn't even really sure why. All he knew was that Velma told him to drive and where to go and Ned took them there. "Honestly?" He shook his head, his brown hair was about the same length as Velma's. "I have no idea what happened?"

Shaggy raised an eyebrow, but it was the dog who spoke next. "Row ran you rot?"

Ned had never spoken to Scooby before, but he had been neighbors with someone that had a talking dog, he was very much used to the way they spoke. "How can I not?" He shrugged hopelessly again. "I really don't know what happened. All I know is that we were looking for the Jersey Devil in the sewers and we found nothing there except for what you would expect."

Scooby's nose twitched despite what he wanted. The sewers. That explained the smell.

Ned sighed. "Next thing I know, something knocked me down. I hit my head on the bottom of the muck, I guess, and then next thing I know, I find Velma next to me. I helped her up and she muttered drive. I asked where and she said here. And for the next six hours, I drove without her saying one blasted word."

Shaggy looked at Scooby, but the Great Dane just shrugged. "I suppose we're not going to know exactly what happened until she wakes up. "

Ned's mouth curled up on the end slightly and he shook his head. "Not fully. I mean I can at least tell you what lead to all of this."

Then:

Velma could tell by the look on J.J. 's face that he thought that this was a waste of time. Not the looking for the Jersey Devil, that part was obviously impressive. There were too many shows about hunting for monsters that drew in big time ratings for J.J. to ignore. But the part of the show they were filming now, the part about meeting with eyewitnesses, well, that bored him.

It didn't bore Velma though. She was a detective at heart and all good detectives knew that you had to get eyewitness accounts about what had happened. Granted, she felt like that the issue was a nonstarter, no one had seen the Devil in a very long time and now suddenly sightings were popping up again. She knew a hoax when she saw one and this screamed not real. No, she was fairly certain that this monster wasn't real, but she felt like there was something down there and more than likely it was a man in a mask.

Her first eyewitness couldn't have been more stereotypical if they had tried. Middle-aged farmer who seemed to be missing most of his teeth. Tobacco spit seemed to be coming out of the corner of his mouth and the smell hung in the air. It was overpowering and it made Velma sick to her stomach. Well, maybe it was the smell, it may have been that she was on camera that was making her nauseous. The farmer was wearing blue overalls and thick black boots that had obviously been out in the cow pasture. He hadn't even cleared them off. If she didn't know better, she would've thought that J.J. had dressed him up just to get a good reaction from the people at home.

"So," Velma said slowly, "You saw the Jersey Devil?"

The farmer was named Josh McDonald. When he introduced himself, Velma had to elbow Ned from laughing at the name. "Yep," he said as he spit some tobacco on the ground, "I did!"

"Tell us about it, please?"

He took a deep breath, spit out again and then cocked an eyebrow. "I went into town and that is when I saw him. He was tryin' to steal a pear from a fruit stand."

Velma stepped on Ned's foot to stop him from laughing. "A pear?"

"Yep! I reckon cause he's part goat, ya know? Also, he's a bat. Some bats eat fruit."

"Can you describe him, please?"

The farmer nodded and scratched his backside. "Yep! He was the size of a man, maybe bigger. And then he had him a goat's head and bat wings. And he had hooves. And those hands were clawed, like a…a…lion or somethin'!

"Did anyone else see him?"

The farmer shook his head. "Naw, I reckon I was the only one who actually got a look at him. But I did see where he went."

Velma nodded slowly. "Excellent, where did he go?"

"Right into the sewer. I betcha that's how he had been living without being seen for so long. That monster is living underground!"

Velma thanked him and moved towards Ned. J.J. was over immediately to get him to sign various disclaimers and waving likeness fees. Ned smirked. "Well, that seems legit."

Velma sighed. "I have to admit, he's not the most credible of witnesses, but other than the fruit angle, that's exactly how our other witnesses described them. And they all said he went down to the same place."

Ned's smile faded. "The sewer. Excellent." His face picked up slightly. "Well, at least I can say something I've always wanted to say."

"What's that?"

"What an incredible smell you've discovered!"

Now:

Shaggy still hadn't moved from his location. Scooby had fallen asleep next to him, and Ned was given a chance to go and shower and patch up his wound. But Shaggy hadn't moved. In fact, it was in the wee hours of the morning before he made any movement whatsoever. And the only reason he moved at all was because Velma sat up and lazily stretched.

"Like, are you OK?" He asked with obvious concern in his voice.

She didn't get a chance to respond, as at that exact time, Ned walked in. He was wearing a shirt of Shaggy's that was too long and pants that he had to loop tightly around with a belt to keep from falling off him. In his hands was a tray and on that tray was…

"Rood!" Scooby cried as he got to his feet. "Raggy! Rook, rancakes!"

Ned grinned as he sat down a plate on the ground for the dog. He was careful to keep the other plates away from Scooby, he had heard all about his desire for food and what lengths he would go to in order to get it. "Your Uncle Nat gave this to me. He said you all must be hungry." He grimaced. "He also said that it would take more than one spin through the washing machine to get the smell out of my clothes." He paused. "Dude, you sure that your uncle? He looks dead on like you."

Shaggy laughed. "Yep! Uncle Nat and I could be twins!" He took his plate from Ned and turned to Velma. She looked better but still was obviously worn out. "Like, I think it's time you told us just what happened there. Like, Ned told us what he could, but I still don't have all the clues, you know? Like, what happened in the sewers?"

Velma grinned slightly as she reached around for her glasses. Ned was there to give them to her. He knew that she couldn't see a thing without her glasses. "I don't even remember coming here." She turned to her camera man. "Thank you."

Ned simply nodded and sat down on the bed next to her. "I'm kind of curious about what exactly happened too. Whatever came about was behind me, I missed everything."

Velma bit her lip as she closed her eyes. "I wish I could say the same." She quickly buried her face in her hands, before she cleared the sleep from her eyes. "Guys, I think I made a big mistake."

Shaggy shook his head. "Naw, that doesn't sound like you at all, right Scoob?"

"Right!"

Velma smiled again. Shaggy was always the one that she could lean on for comfort about things like that. When she was jealous of Daphne's looks, Shaggy was the one who she knew would be there to pick her up. "Still, I am pretty certain that I did. I mean, why did I come here?"

"Search me," Shaggy said with a shrug, "Like, all I know is that you are certainly here now."

Velma shook her head. "I should've gone to the police."

Ned raised an eyebrow. "For what?

Velma had realized that Shaggy and Scooby wouldn't have known what was going on, but she assumed that Ned would've realized that something was missing. "Ned, think about it, where is J.J. ?"

"Wait," Ned said with all the ability to think that someone who had driven all night and hadn't slept contained, "He's not here! Does that mean…"

Velma eagerly waited for him to put together the clues. "That means that he's the Jersey Devil!" Ned exclaimed with excitement.

Velma sighed. It was pretty clear to her that she was going to have to be the person who put all the clues together for Ned.

"OK, let me tell you what happened when we went into the sewers."

Then:

Velma knew that J.J. and Ned were not happy with the decisions that she made, but it was her show and she was going to run it her way. They descended down into the sewers, the smell was not what Ned had expected. It was worse. He felt a gag coming and had to suppress it. "Where do we want to set up?"

Velma shook her head. "No just setting up anything. We're going to take footage and move on."

J.J. grimaced. "So wait, we're going to just go off and wander around the sewer? I mean, what's the game plan?"

Velma knelt down and examined the ground. "Don't you all think this is a bit odd?"

Ned moved the camera over and zoomed in on her. "What's odd?"

"This sewer is big enough to walk through."

Ned looked over at J.J. , but their boss just shrugged. "Yes it is."

Velma grinned. "Most sewers aren't big enough for grown people to walk through. But this one is. I just think it's a bit convenient, don't you?" She looked up at the camera. "Maybe it was built with the monster in mind."

Ned raised an eyebrow. "You don't actually believe that, do you?" He knew the answer when he asked the question. He just enjoyed hearing what Velma was going to say next.

"Goodness no!" She stood up and wiped her hands off on her skirt. She was starting to regret her decision to wear a skirt into the sewers. Pants would've been a much better option. "Please, I've seen too many men in masks to think that this could be anything other than that. But I just thought it was an interesting thought. Did they build these tunnels with the Devil in mind?"

Ned shrugged and pointed to the ground. "What is it that you saw that got you so interested in the first place?"

"Jinkies! I nearly forgot!" She knelt down again and motioned the camera to come closer. She pointed to the ground and ran her hands over an indention that was driven into the ground. "To answer your question, J.J. , I know we're on the right path because these are claw marks."

J.J. rolled his eyes. "There is no way you could see those."

Velma smirked. "Well, I can't see things without my glasses. With my glasses, I can see things very well. And besides, I've had almost two decades worth of practice on these sorts of things."

Ned knew that was telling the truth, but he had forgotten just how much experience that she had. She was only 25, but she had been doing this since she was a little kid. He had heard her tales of the Scooby Doo Detective Agency which paved the way to Mystery Incorporated. And from there she would go onto to this show. She had more experience than most police detectives ten years her elder. "I'm going to believe her on this." Ned looked back to J.J. , "I'm going to go on with her. But you are more than welcome to stay in the dark sewer by yourself." He paused. "You did remember to bring a flash light, right?"

J.J. muttered under his breath but followed them. "Guys, don't forget, it's supposed to rain today. We don't want to get caught in a flash flood."

Velma grimaced. J.J. was right. But she knew that there was something else that was down there with them. "We won't venture too far away from the man holes, so we can still get out. I have a map of the sewers with me, I think we'll be fine."

J.J. shook his head but kept walking, at least there was a plan and they were going to be safe.

Now:

"Just ten more minutes of sleep," Daphne muttered as she hit her alarm and buried her head under the pillow. She was wearing purple flannel pajamas that was monogrammed "DB" on the left shoulder. She grumbled as she could make out birds singing from her window sill. All she wanted was… "Bacon?"

Her train of thought was radically different from the start of that sentence as it became clear that she was smelling bacon. And not just bacon, but scrambled eggs and toast. Someone was cooking breakfast. She sat up and yawned, stretching her arms over her head and shook out her long red hair. All around her room was pictures, Daphne loved pictures more than anything in the world. Pictures of her family, pictures of places around Crystal Cove, pictures of her fiancée and pictures of her friends from Mystery Incorporated lined the walls. Rhett had often joked that she didn't actually need wall paper, because she lined so much of the walls with pictures.

She got to her feet, slid on her purple slippers and then made her way into the living room. She had to use the wall for support, and suddenly she felt more like danger prone Daphne now than she had in years. Well, other than every morning. She wasn't herself until she had a cup of coffee. She went into the kitchen and smiled at her equally red-headed fiancée. "Hey, sweet heart."

Rhett Herring smiled back as he motioned towards the plates that he had placed on the table, filled with food. "Thought you were gonna sleep forever!" He sat down across from where he had placed her plate and looked down at his own. "So, what's the agenda for today?"

Daphne gave a half hearted shrug. "I'm going to be going around for more on the scene reporting, you know how that goes."

"Nancy still not letting you sit behind the big desk?" Daphne shook her no and Rhett sighed. "I don't suppose that it would help if I went down and talked to her, would it?"

Daphne laughed. "Oh, I'm sure it will. Nothing screams 'professional' like having your fiancée show up at work to talk to your boss about being unfair." She smirked at him. "I think I will have to pass your very generous offer."

Rhett shrugged as he stood up, having finished eating his meal. "Can't say that I didn't try, y'know?" He motioned towards the dishes. "Hey babe, you mind getting these? I'm running late."

Daphne nodded as she finished off her meal as well. "I guess I'll wait for the camera guy to come grab me in the van." She stood and walked towards the bathroom to get ready, but popped her head out. "Hey, Rhett, are you forgetting something?"

The words were no sooner out of her mouth when he appeared next to the bathroom door, a dopey smile on his face. "Course not, babe." He leaned down and kissed her gently. "You have a great day at work!"

Daphne nodded. "You too."

Rhett had just made it to the door, when a phone started to ring next to him. It was Daphne's cell phone, and based on the fact that the hair dryer had just started, he knew that she didn't hear it. He looked at the caller ID. "Hmm." He hadn't seen that name in a really long time. "Shaggy Rogers." He shrugged and picked up the phone. He looked at the ringing phone in his hand and then to the bathroom door and back again. He wasn't sure if he should answer it, but he knew that the longer he stood there, not answering the phone, the later he was getting to work. He sighed and walked over to the bathroom, while doing so, he hit the talk button. "Daphne Blake's phone. This is Rhett."

"Like, am I glad to hear from you!" Shaggy said on the other end of the line, "Like, is Daphne around, it's important?"

Then:

J.J. 's mumbling only grew worse as the air got fouler. He felt that this whole thing was a mockery of him, but he couldn't figure out why. Well, other than the fact that they didn't like him. He was kind of a jerk to them in a general way. But seriously, he didn't make their lives that hard. Not hard enough to send him through a sewer on a wild Devil chase. "I don't see what the point of all of this is."

"The point," Ned said bitterly, "Is to track down the Jersey Devil."

Velma shook her head, still stopping every few feet to look at the ground. "Guys, we've been over this, we're not looking for the Jersey Devil." She paused. "Well, we are, but we're not looking for the real Jersey Devil. I sincerely doubt that the real Jersey Devil was anything but a mutated goat or cow or something along those lines. We're looking for the person who is pretending to be the Jersey Devil."

Ned closed his eyes for a second and rubbed his forehead with his middle finger and his thumb. He paused as he pulled his hand back and looked at it. "Well," he said with a grimace, "That was a mistake. Goodness only knows what I got on me now. But I'll need a long shower." He regretted his attire for this journey. The jeans were fine, but the white t-shirt was a horrible decision.

He didn't want to admit it, but he felt that this entire thing was a waste of time. He was sure that Velma was chasing something, but the claw marks that he was looking at could have been made by nearly anything. He felt that this was made by a fairly large rat. He shuddered slightly, as he thought about what was worse, running into a rat large enough to make those marks or the Jersey Devil itself. "The rats," he said out loud, "Certainly the rats would be worse."

Velma heard him say something about rats, but she didn't pay it any attention. She knew that Ned's greatest fear was rats. He was probably thinking that these claw marks were made by giant rats. Velma suppressed a shudder. She had run into some rather unique creatures in her life time, but she didn't want to see what kind of rats would be able to make those marks. She stopped as she came across what seemed to be a dead end. "Hey, Ned? Can you get some more light over here for me, please?"

Ned wasn't sure what he was looking for, but did what he was asked. He looked at the wall and then over at J.J. . He saw a solid wall, and J.J. gave a shrug as he looked down at it too.

"These claw marks," Velma pointed, "They end here."

J.J. glanced down at her and then at Ned. "So, what? We hit a dead end?"

Velma shook her head as she touched the wall and raised her flashlight up. Ned's camera followed the path and J.J. grunted. "Nope! Not going to do that!"

They had found an opening along the top of the wall. Velma reached up, grabbed it and pulled herself up for a better look. "Guys, this is totally passable. We can all get up into this tunnel. Heck, we may be able to stand up in about ten feet."

"What happened to us staying on the path near the man holes? This doesn't even appear on the map, Velma. This isn't safe."

Velma smirked. "J.J. , my entire life isn't safe. Now, are you going to come hunt the Devil with me?"

"I'm totally in." Ned helped Velma get the rest of the way up and found a large enough rock that would let him get into the tunnel as well. "Coming J.J. ?"

Not for the first time, J.J. regretted that he didn't have a flashlight. "Fine, but I want it to be noted that I am doing this under protest."

"Noted," Ned simply said, reaching back to help him up.

Now:

Fred Jones was sore. He had grease in his blond hair and grease on his coveralls. And everything hurt. Well, that wasn't exactly accurate. His shoulders were hurting badly, but they generally did when he slept on the couch. He had been sleeping on the couch more and more lately, and not just because he was kicked out of bed by Nancy. This was a conscious decision that he made in order to keep a happier home than it had been. He noticed that Nancy was more likely to pick a fight with him before they went to bed than any other time and he was not going to give her another chance for another fight. Not if he could help it. In fact, this morning, he had left before she had woken up and when to the auto shop early. In his mind, it was as good as a day as he had in a while.

They didn't use to be like this. They had been happy. He had loved her greatly and she was quite good for him. But that was before Daphne's rise to prominence. Nancy was always jealous of Daphne. She knew that deep down, Fred cared about her more than he let on, and the fact that they still saw each other bothered her. But she dismissed it. She knew that Fred wasn't the kind of guy to cheat on her. But Daphne started to get fan mail at the station. Nancy felt that the anchor that was younger than she was, and dare she say it, prettier than she was, was a real threat to her. And that was why she treated Daphne like trash at work, and that was when the arguments started.

And that lead Fred Jones to this exact moment. He was on the precipice of real change. He felt very likely that he was going to end things with Nancy, but he wasn't sure how. It would be a huge change in his life. He didn't have another place to live. And honestly, he didn't have any friends that were left. There was Jose, but Fred was Jose's boss, it would've been odd to ask him if he could bunk with him. Until he knew something else, had something else more concrete, he wasn't going to be going anywhere.

He always amazed himself about how he could work on a car, as he was doing now to a 1965 Ford Mustang and think about his current life. If only everything was as easy in life as working on cars was to him, he would have it made. Probably would be president by this time. He sighed as he rolled out from under the car and glanced outside. It was a nice morning, and he had the doors to the garage open wide. He felt the wind blow in and hit his face, and it carried a smell. A smell he recognized.

He closed his eyes as he heard the footsteps coming. High heel shoes clicked on the pavement outside, and he heard someone come into the garage. "Morning, Nancy."

"You left without telling me." Her tone was accusing but the pain that was in it was all too real. She wasn't the bad guy. Fred had to keep telling himself that. It was all too easy to see the world as heroes and villains. But it wasn't like that for the most part, not really. She was a woman who was afraid, who was hurt, and he needed to remember that her feelings were important too.

"I didn't want to wake you." It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the full truth either. She was a reporter, she was quite good at picking out the things that weren't real. She was starting to realize that there was a lot more to this story than she was previously aware of.

"Not even a kiss goodbye?" Fred opened his eyes and he started into the blue eyes of his girlfriend. He wasn't really sure what to say.

"Sorry." Was that it? All he had was a sorry? He wasn't even sure who he was at this moment. He knew who he used to be, but he wasn't sure he was still that guy. There was a time that Fred Jones had all the confidence in the world. What happened to that guy?

His phone started to ring and Nancy glanced at it. "Are you really going to answer that right now?"

"I have to," he said softly, "its Shaggy."

Then:

They crawled for about ten feet or so through the sewers, and Velma was correct, they could then stand. It was odd, the tunnel seemed to lead towards a handful of different paths, and each one seemed to be branching towards another part of the sewer. But Velma was stopping every few feet. She was ignoring the side tunnels in favor of going through the main section. After another thirty feet, there was a drop off. They paused as Velma slowly climbed down to the bottom.

Ned came out next and looked around, his camera picking up the scenes. "So what exactly is going on here?"

Velma pointed to the ground. "The claw marks came into here."

Ned looked around the room. There was more sewage flowing down the middle of the room, which was a bit on the largish size, but there was one thing that he noticed. It was very barren. "Are those rat bones?"

J.J. looked over into the corner where Ned was pointing. There was some newspaper that looked a bit like a nest. Too much so for J.J. 's liking. "You think that nest is hiding something?"

Ned looked at Velma, but she was already on her way over. Ned had to agree with J.J. , if this was a thief or something, this was the likeliest place to hide their stolen goods. Heaven knows that nowhere else in this room was going to be a good place to hide anything. Well, unless it was in the sewage.

Velma knelt down and dug through the newspapers. "Jinkies!"

Ned raised an eyebrow and stood just in front of the waters that split the room in half. His camera was focused intently on Velma. Whatever she found, he wanted to make sure that he got a good shot on it. He zoomed in on her discovery and was utterly confused about what he saw. "Eggs?"

J.J. was standing behind him. He had tilted his head to one side and raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean eggs? You mean like chicken eggs?"

Ned shook his head. "No. Honestly, I've never seen any eggs like this before."

"What are you," J.J. said bitterly, "An egg expert? If I find an odd egg in my yard, do I bring it to you or something?"

"Really, J.J. ?" Ned had long since grown annoyed with J.J. 's discussion points. "No, I am not an egg expert. I was just trying to explain things to you, since you cannot see it. Would you like to go over and look at the eggs yourself?"

J.J. grumbled again. He was becoming use to it. "So, what? It's like a fake egg or something, right? Someone put diamonds in it or something?"

Ned smirked. It was funny how J.J. 's role on the show was the counter point. Velma started it off talking about the situation they were in. They would interview some witnesses and then they would solve the case. J.J. would talk about the supernatural end of it, even though he didn't believe.

Velma had opened her mouth and it was clear that she was going to work on one of her patented statements about what she was seeing and the clues that were all coming together. Ned was expecting that. What he wasn't expecting was for her face to go as white as a sheet and for her to point behind him. "Look out!"

Ned couldn't see exactly what was going on, but the look on Velma's face told him that he was in danger. He turned his head to look at what it was, but he couldn't make out anything. J.J. was knocked into him, and Ned fell into the foul waters of the sewer, his head hitting the ground. He shook his head and swam to the top, where he found Velma barely moving. He grabbed her and kept her head above the water. "Drive," she said.

Now:

Nancy glared at Fred. Her fear and anger was so real that Fred's employees found convenient reasons to avoid being in the general area. "So it's like that. You are going to leave?"

Fred looked at the Mystery Machine, and realized how much he really missed driving in it. He didn't want to look at Nancy. "I'm going to go and take care of my friend."

"And what about me?"

"You are more than welcome to go with me."

"I can't just leave my job."

Just then, a red corvette pulled up, and out of it came Rhett and Daphne. They looked rushed and saw Fred and Nancy. Ignoring their friends' awkward situation, they ran forward. "Oh good! Are you guys going to be going too?" Daphne asked.

Nancy stared long and hard at Daphne before she said anything. "Are you also going on this errand?"

Daphne looked back at Rhett who just nodded. "I am."

"Miss Blake, if you do not show up to work today, consider yourself fired."

Daphne paused. The thought of her losing her job horrified her. For a few moments, before she realized that she wasn't going anywhere in this current job. As long as Nancy was in charge, Daphne was stuck. And she wasn't going to be stuck any more. "So be it." She turned from Nancy's flabbergasted face to look at her fiancée. "Rhett," she asked softly, "Are you going to be coming?"

"Right behind you, babe." Rhett grinned and stared at Nancy. He wasn't her biggest fan, and unlike how she felt towards Daphne, Rhett didn't see Fred as competition. "Your move, Ice Queen."

Fred was torn. He watched his two friends get into the Mystery Machine, and gave him the room that he needed in order to get into the van. He wanted to go, he needed to go and help Shaggy out. It was important that he was true to his friends. But it was important to give Nancy her proper due as well. But that was a clear issue, he had no where else to go. No one else to turn to. And he had loved her.

That was the key word for Fred, he had loved her. Past tense. He didn't love her in the here and now, and he knew that. But he didn't want to see her get hurt. His friends needed him, that much was obvious, though the details were very lacking. Did Nancy really need him? Did she really want him? Or was she just afraid of losing him? He wasn't sure. "Please don't do this now."

"I'm sorry, is there another time that you were planning on leaving town with your ex-girlfriend? Were you even going to tell me that you were leaving?"

Fred couldn't answer that. It wasn't just because he didn't have to make that choice. She knew where he was and what he was doing. But if she hadn't been here, the phone would've still ring. Daphne and Rhett would've still shown up. And he still would've been faced with the same choices. Would he have told her about it?

"The hesitation tells me everything that I need to know." Her face looked tired. It had the air of a woman who had spent too many sleepless nights worried about something and no amount of make up was going to hide it. Especially once the tears started to fall.

"That's not fair, Nancy."

"No," she said simply, "It's not."

Fred sighed as he looked towards the van.

"Fred Jones," Nancy said evenly, "If you get into that van, don't bother coming back home."


	3. Episode 3: Fraphne

Then:

The gang had gone elsewhere in their lives. Velma had gone off to Duke, she still called, but that didn't change the fact that she wasn't there. FaceTime could only accomplish so much after all. Shaggy and Scooby had gone off to be driftless folk down with his uncle. They were now living in a Georgia mansion for free. Honestly, they may have been the smartest ones of the group. That just left Freddie and Daphne.

They were the two who were still staying in Crystal Cove. Fred had always felt that he and Daphne were the closest of the group, other than Shag and Scoob that was. Whenever they would split up, the natural pairing was the two of them, Shaggy and Scooby on their own, and Velma going between the two groups. Granted, she was more often with Fred and Daphne than the boys, but there were times that they split up differently. Fred almost never spent any time with Shaggy. In fact, Shaggy was the one in the group that he was the least familiar with. It was funny, really. You would think that the opposite would be true, but here they were, the two guys, who had nothing in common and therefore any reason to really talk.

"I'm jealous of Shaggy." Fred wasn't aware that he spoke out loud, but it didn't matter, he was alone in his dorm room. His roommate wasn't there. Fred figured he should've liked Steve better than he did, the two had a lot in common, both were into sports, both liked to go out bowling, and both of them were on the track team. Steve Looker was more talented than Fred, but that wasn't an unfair statement, Steve was going to be in the Olympics.

Fred shook his head, he wasn't aware of the fact that he was jealous of Shaggy until just this moment. It never seemed to come up before, at least not consciously. Fred knew exactly why he was jealous. It was the summer that he had gone off to Camp Little Moose for the last time. The rest of the gang made fun of him for still going to a summer camp, but he didn't care, he knew that camp was going to be important to him when he got older. Velma had gone off to science camp, which sounded about as far away from camp as a thing could be to Freddie. That left Shaggy, Scooby, Daphne and Scrappy Doo behind in Crystal Cove.

That was a complicated summer. Not only was Scrappy there, but that was also the summer of the 13 Ghosts nonsense. That wasn't the concern for Fred, it was the fact that Shaggy and Daphne started to date during that summer. Without Velma and Fred around, they met a new group of people that Fred still hadn't met. And during that summer, they found comfort with each other. And it tore Fred up.

It's funny; it was over by the time that Fred had come back. The 13 ghosts had ended, and so did the relationship. Shaggy traveled with Scooby and Scrappy without Daphne for a few weeks, and by the time Fred and Velma had returned it was like nothing had happened. Well, except that Scrappy had left. Fred wasn't sure he was unhappy about that change. He didn't say anything to Shaggy but he raged privately. Surely, Shaggy knew how Fred had felt towards Daphne. It wasn't a question! Everyone knew how he felt. He could remember Red Herring teasing him about it when they were on the playgrounds when they were kids. Shaggy had to have known, he just had to. So why did Shaggy ask her out?

"Because you didn't ask her out." Of course Shaggy knew how he felt. There wasn't any question about that. But the real issue was that Shaggy was probably confused about why Fred hadn't made a move. And with Fred gone, having gone years without trying anything, Shaggy made his move. Something that Fred was too afraid to do.

He laughed. He couldn't help it. Shaggy was well known to be the biggest coward in the group, behind maybe, Scooby, but he was still able to perform an act that Fred was afraid to do himself.

"Well," Fred said thoughtfully as he stared at himself in the mirror, "I am I not going to make the same mistake. I am going to ask her out right now."

Now 

Shaggy wasn't sure exactly what had happened to him. All he knew is that he had spent years doing the exact thing that he wanted, avoiding anything remotely that had to do with ghosts and ghouls. There was a brief time when the others were in college that he traveled the world with Scooby and Scrappy, and they had some really groovy adventures, but he was happy with where he was in life. And now that was all crashing down. "Like, I can already see where this is going."

Ned Burchill looked around the room and realized that he was being spoken to. "We're going to go back to Jersey and deal with the Devil." He looked over to where Velma was, in another room, talking with Scooby. "She has an idea in her mind, and I've been around that woman long enough to know how she thinks."

Shaggy raised an eyebrow. "Man, I don't think you do. Like, her brain is always going a mile a minute, it seems."

Ned shrugged. It was clear that he and Shaggy were going to disagree. A lot. He had heard about the hippy from Velma, and was certain that they type of person that he was would not get along with the type of person Ned was. Ned shrugged. "She is spending a lot of time talking to Scooby."

Shaggy nodded. "Yep, she does that. Personally, I think it's pretty groovy." Ned held back a snicker. "I think a lot of things that she does is pretty groovy." He was impressed with his ability to keep a straight face as he said that. "How long do you think it'll be before Daphne and Fred get here?"

"Not long enough," Shaggy said bitterly.

Ned was confused. "You don't want to see Fred and Daphne?"

"Like, I love those guys!" Shaggy stood and grabbed some more clothes, a mixture of red and green shirts and various pants, all of them either blue jeans or khakis. "But them coming back is gonna change everything. I'm telling you, man, things are not gonna be the way they are." Shaggy paused. "And I don't think they are gonna be the way they were. But I'm not sure if the others had thought about that."

Ned looked at the clothes and had two thoughts. Does he own any other kind of clothes, and when did he start looking at things so seriously. Ned looked around the room. It was old. The kind of old that he would've thought would have freaked out Shaggy. This house just looked like something out of one of those historical homes, well kept, but the entire house was putting up a fight against staying up. "How were things before?"

"We were kids." Ned wasn't prepared for Shaggy to say that. "We didn't have a care in the world. You remember what high school was like, the world seemed big and bright. Romance was in the air. Everything seemed simple back then, even when it didn't seem like it should be."

Ned went over to the window and looked out. The land was green, trees dotted the landscape. It was very different from New Jersey. Everything there seemed to be a city and there was hardly any green. He knew that wasn't one hundred percent accurate, but it was certainly the way that it felt. "And now?"

Shaggy groaned as he fell on the bed, staring at the ceiling. "Like, things are way more complicated. This isn't just gonna be a rescue mission. Fred is gonna have ideas of what this is. Daphne will have her own. And that doesn't even bring in Velma or Scooby or Rhett or Nancy. All of them think that something different is gonna happen. Man, life isn't simple any more."

Shaggy sighed as he closed the suitcase. "Do you ever have any plans in life?"

Ned grinned as he looked over at Velma. "I have big plans."

"Like," Shaggy said with a grin, "I don't think that your plans are gonna go the way you think they will, man."

Then:

"Today is the day." Fred wasn't talking to anyone in particular- he was just talking out loud. It made the situation a bit more awkward as he was currently standing outside the building her class was in. It was a wonderful fall day, leaves were twisting in the wind as they seemed to dance across Darrow University.

"What am I going to do if she says no?" Once more, this question was not directed at anyone in particular, which was fine, as the people started to give him a wider berth than normal as they realized that he was talking to himself.

The sound of the door opening caught his attention and he watched the students pour out in anticipation. His stomach was knotted up and he thought that he would half throw up, half scream. "Get a grip," he muttered to himself.

And then he saw her. She was wearing a purple dress. Of course she was, she always favored purple. Not that he had room to talk; he was still wearing a shade of blue, just like normal. "Hey, Daph!"

Daphne grinned as she walked over to him. "Freddie! How are you doing?"

"I'm good," he said as he thought, 'ask her.'

Daphne started to walk off towards the student center. "I'm going to go grab a bite to eat between classes. Want to come?"

Fred nodded wordlessly. He fell in step next to her, not looking at her. If she noticed anything was off about him, she didn't say anything. "So, did you study for that Chemistry test?" They were in the same class. Fred was doing better than she was, but she assumed that was because he was showing more interest in it due to his love of traps.

"I did. Wish Velma was still here," he said, "She would've been able to get us to ace it with no problems."

Daphne laughed. "That's true. You going to go to the football game? I'm torn. You know how much I love to go to events and get out among people, but still, football, yuck!"

Fred couldn't help but laugh. "Yes, life is hard all over." What was he doing with all this small talk? It needed to be like a band-aid, fast and painless. He just needed to ask her already.

Daphne smirked. "So, Tri Delta has asked me if I would join them." She laughed. "Normally, you have to rush, and we're way too late to do anything like that. I guess they really want me to join them."

Fred grinned. "Tri Delts? Nice! Maybe we could get going to the same parties. My brothers at Delta Pi are always trying to get us to bring in new blood."

"Brothers?" Daphne snorted, "I have five sisters! I don't think I need to go ahead and add any more of them to my family."

Fred shrugged. "It's what we call each other."

"And with no irony!" She shook her head. "Fred Jones, I didn't think that you were going to fall for that, honestly!"

Fred took a deep breath and looked Daphne straight in the eyes. "Hey, Daph?" Fred smiled. "I was wondering if you'd like to go out with me?" He put it out there. That wasn't they way that he wanted to word it. It sounded very juvenile. There was only one thing to do, wait on her response.

"Yes!"

Now:

Velma stared at the computer absentmindedly. She wasn't really sure what she was looking for, but she knew that something had to be done. She felt helpless. Once her friends came, she would be in a better spot. She knew that Ned would've backed her up, but she wasn't sure that he was prepared for this. But were any of them prepared for this?

Her thoughts were interrupted by Scooby Doo putting his head on her knee. She scratched behind his years and smiled at him. "It's going to be like old times again, isn't it?" She glanced out the window and briefly wondered if she could live this kind of life; big land, nothing around them for miles. It certainly held a certain appeal to her. But she shook her head- she knew that she would go stir crazy after a while. She wondered how Shaggy and Scooby managed to avoid that fate.

Scooby followed her look and smiled. This was the life for him. Nothing spooky ever really happened, outside of the occasional thunderstorm. His entire life was pure satisfaction. He realized that no one member of the gang really knew what he had been through since they split up, other than Shaggy. But they had a series of adventures that didn't really add up to a fun time for him. And the secrets that he was supposed to keep. It felt odd not to tell the others what they had done, but if they never asked, he didn't see how it was going to be relevant. "I rissed rou."

Velma grinned as she stared at him. "I missed you too. It hasn't really been the same since the group broke up."

"Reah," Scooby said, "But rou rought rots of ronsters."

Velma nodded. "I certainly have. Ned and I make a pretty good team." She stared towards her cameraman who was staring at her. He quickly turned his attention in another direction, a bit too quickly for her tastes. She knew that he was staring and that he was embarrassed to be caught. This was going to lead to problems. She knew that. Curse her intelligence!

Scooby placed his head down on the floor and closed his eyes. "But," Velma continued, worried that she was going to lose her audience, "It was nothing compared to what we all had." She hadn't really thought about it before, but there was a very real chance that they were not going to replicate what they had been. Her longing for the past came at a point where she wasn't sure that she was going to be able to remember why she called them in the first place. "Do you think this is a mistake?"

Scooby raised his head up. Of course he thought it was a mistake. Any time they left and didn't go for food or a movie was a mistake. And then there were times that were a mistake as well. But he knew what his friend needed to hear. "Rope."

Velma nodded slowly, as a look of determination filled her face. "The group is bigger this time. There is no way that Rhett isn't going to come. And it wouldn't surprise me at all if Nancy didn't tag along as well."

"Rat about Red?"

Velma glanced back towards Ned. He had been part of her life for a few years now. She kept things from him, but was this going to be one of those things? She wasn't even sure that her show was going to survive. She wasn't sure that they were going to be able to rescue J.J. And even if they could, what were they going to rescue him from? She didn't believe that the Jersey Devil was real, did she? "If Ned wants to come, he certainly is welcome to." She had no doubt that he was going to come, but the real question was, would he find what he was looking for when he did?

Scooby smiled and placed his head down again. He was as happy with the arrangement as he could've been. He fell asleep.

Then:

Six months. It has been six months since that conversation had happened. And for Fred Jones, they were the best six months of his life. He didn't realize that his entire life was missing just one thing, Daphne.

He had dated other girls before, and he certainly knew what a relationship could be, but this relationship changed his entire idea of what a good relationship should be. He felt that Daphne had been the missing half of his entire life. Everything he wanted was found in her and nothing else mattered.

Six months. He was sure of how he felt about her before they started to date but now that they had started, it was pretty clear that it took him six months to be beyond certain. He loved Daphne. It was clear. And tonight was going to be the night he told her.

He was waiting at the table. It was their favorite restaurant, a nice Italian place on campus. It wasn't fancy by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it was a bit of a dive. It was where they had gone once back in high school when Shaggy insisted that they had to try it. Eventually, the gang gave in, and they were all happy that they had. Daphne was going to be late to dinner. Her class was having a test and she was going to be staying after to make sure that her scores were solid. She didn't realize that tonight was going to be important at all. But she knew it when she walked in.

She walked into the door and paused as she saw Fred. He wasn't wearing blue jeans this time, instead he was dressed with a tie and a nice shirt, black dress pants, and his shoes were polished. She grinned as she nervously looked around the room. "Fred?"

"Hey, Daph."

She looked admiringly at him. "I feel that I'm underdressed." It was true, Fred was dressed up nicely, but this was laundry day for her. She was certainly slumming it. She had a sweatshirt from the school and jeans with holes in them. Her hair was up in a bun and as far as Fred was concerned, she had never looked better.

"I think you look great," he said as he got to his feet and met her halfway to the table.

"Flatterer." she said as she kissed his cheek. "So why are we all dressed up for a routine dinner?" She may not have been the "Smart" one of the group, but she was hardly a ditz. She knew that she was seen as that, but she was smart enough to realize that something was up, but she had no idea what it may have been.

"To celebrate."

She raised an eyebrow. "Celebrate? What are we celebrating?"

Fred smiled slightly. "Your test. I assume you passed, right?"

Daphne shrugged. "Hard to say, really. I mean, he didn't grade it right then and there, y'know?"

Six months. Fred had waited six months for this moment. In someway, it was a more harrowing moment for him than it was when he asked her out. "Well, I say we celebrate what we assume is a good grade." He directed her towards the table where a dozen roses where waiting for her.

Daphne gently touched the flower, looking up from them to Fred's face. "They're beautiful."

"Beautiful flowers for a beautiful lady."

Daphne shook her head. "Fred Jones, that is one of the lamest things that you have ever said."

Six months. He had waited six months. No time like the present. "Daphne, I love you."

She didn't say a word, but her feelings were made clear when she grabbed him and kissed him.

Now:

Velma left Scooby sleeping as she went to go join the other two. "So," She said awkwardly. She was trying to feel out the room. Did they get along well? Do they dislike each other? Social interactions were never her strong suit, but she was the only thing that tied these two men together. Like it or not, she was forced to play the role. "What do you all think?"

Shaggy and Ned exchanged glances. Neither of these men was going to be honest with their thoughts. Velma knew that much. She just had to figure out what they weren't saying. She had a good idea what Ned was keeping to himself, but Shaggy was the intriguing one of the two.

Ned was the first of the two to speak. "I think we need to hurry. I don't even know why we came here in the first place."

Velma was not surprised by that, and it was something that she was wondering herself. She knew why, of course, but how could she explain it? Why not go to the police? Why get the gang back together? What were they going to do if they found J.J.'s body? A lot of questions that she had with no real answers for them. "I think we need the old gang back."

Ned didn't say anything. He didn't agree. Velma could understand that. Hadn't the two of them had great successes without the gang? Didn't they accomplish more high profile cases than Mystery Inc ever did? She couldn't argue with that. But she couldn't explain to him how different that things that would've been had the gang been there. "I hope they get here soon."

She turned her attention to Shaggy. "What about you?"

Shaggy looked over at Ned and was confused. "Like, what do you mean?"

"Come on silly, what do you think?"

Shaggy closed his eyes. "I think that we need to stay home and let the police handle it." He looks hopelessly at Ned. "Doesn't this sound like a job for the police? Like why don't we just double bolt all of our doors, nail up boards on the windows and sit down and watch TV for like, ever?" He motions towards the basement. "Like, Scooby and I have an entire supermarket set up in the basement. We are good for food for months!"

Ned snickered and then looked at Velma. Her face gave him cause for concern. "He's joking, right?"

Velma nodded. "Of course he is!"

Ned sighed. "See, I knew it was silly that someone could have a supermarket in their basement."

Velma shook her head. "Oh, that? Oh no! That is probably correct. I'm just saying that Shaggy and Scooby couldn't have a supermarket full of food last them for months."

Ned had heard that Shaggy and Scooby were notorious eaters, but even this seemed far-fetched for him. Suddenly a large growl ripped throughout the room. He threw his hands in front of him, fists ready. Then he realized that he looked utterly stupid. "Sorry, Scooby."

"Like, he's asleep."

Ned glanced around. "Than that is some wild animal." He stood in front of Velma, shielding her, "I'll protect you."

"I don't need protecting." It was an understatement. If something got physical, she knew that she was the most likely to need help. That had been Daphne, but every since she started to learn Ju Jitsu, she didn't need it. "Besides, no one needs to be protected."

Shaggy rubbed his stomach. "Like, speak for yourself. I totally need to be protected."

Ned looked at Velma confused. "OK, I have no idea what's going on. What made that noise?

Velma smirked. "That? That's no mystery!" She motioned to Shaggy, "That's just Shaggy's stomach. He must be starved!"

Then:

Things had been going very well over the past year. Six months earlier, Fred and Daphne had told each other that they loved each other. Things were golden for Fred. In fact, it was the happiest time of his life. Even looking back years later, he found that year to have been the greatest single year he had. He had heard others say that high school was the best times of his life, and he thought that it was absurd. He remembered high school, and it was great, but he didn't have Daphne then. And now that he did, he wasn't going to let go of her.

He had gone to the mall recently. This wasn't an unusual thing for him to do, but this time there was a point beyond getting an Orange Julius or trying to find the latest video game. He had a goal in his life and he saw no better time than the current to go after it. Life was good.

A fresh wind brought the smell of lilacs from the garden near him and it mixed with the smell of fresh bread from the bakery across the street. These were the smells that were going to stay with him for the rest of his life.

There were students playing with a Frisbee next to him. There were four of them, three boys and a girl. If Fred had to guess, he would say that the boy in the blue shorts was dating her. But it was also a secret from the other two. He could tell from the longing looks that they gave each other when they thought no one was looking. The tall boy was not paying any attention. The look on his face seemed to show that he was worried about something. He guessed that it was finals that were bothering him. It seemed like his friend had made him come out and play with the rest of them. It wasn't a bad theory, you study a bit and then you take time off to get your mind off what happened. Fred could get behind that theory. These were the sights that he was going to remember for the rest of his life.

The wind felt cool on his skin, the same way that the air conditioning felt when you walked from the outside. The grass beneath his feet crunched as he shifted his feet back and forth. The sunlight warmed him, and the world seemed to be at piece. Everything was perfect. These were physical sensations that he was going to remember for the rest of his life.

There was a song that found its way to his lips. It didn't make it all the way through in words, but he was humming it. It was an odd song for this circumstance, but it was what was stuck in his mind. It was a song about failed romance and looking back on it years after the fact. In the song there was another song that always brought about the old feelings of romance. It was pure and simple and bitter sweet and it was still a song that Fred was humming. It was the song that he would remember for the rest of his life.

The smell of fresh baked bread wafted in the air as his fellow students played games and hid their feelings from each other. The grass crunched under his feet as a bittersweet song brought back lost memories of failed romances. Lilacs blended with the bread, there was a car passing by, he could hear the sound of the Frisbee hitting hands, and once it hit the ground. Fred Jones could easily pull out all of these things at once without confusing them at all.

Fred Jones was going to be able to remember all of these things for one very simple reason, because they were the things that were going on when he asked Daphne to marry him.

Now:

Velma and Shaggy had managed to find their way apart from Ned and Scooby, who was now awake and attempting to engage the cameraman in conversation. "So," Shaggy said, dealing with this sudden change in his life as best as he could, "Like, do you have any Scooby Snacks?"

Velma titled her head as she looked at him. She wasn't sure why, but this thought process confused her to no end. "I kind of stopped carrying those."

"Oh." He looked down at his feet and shuffled his foot on the ground. "Like, I'm just really worried about everything, man."

Velma was waiting on this. She knew that he was worried. She had thought that it was about her physical condition, but now she wasn't sure. "Is it about Ned and how he feels for me?"

Shaggy stopped scuffling his feet and looked his old friend in the eyes. "Like, you know that he loves you?"

Velma winced at the words. She had certainly known that he had a crush on her. But to qualify it as love, well, she wasn't prepared for that. "He certainly is smitten with me. I'll give you that much."

"Smitten?" Shaggy laughed. "Like, no way, man. That dude has got it bad for you!" He laughed again. "Like, the way that he looks at you is the same way that I look at…" and then he fell strangely quiet.

Thankfully, Velma was ready with an ending that would help him out of his current jam. "Like you look at Daphne?" She smiled brightly. "It's Daphne, right!" She paused. "I mean, that's great, but jinkies, the two of you dated, what ten years ago?"

"Like, a bit more than that. It was when you were at math camp."

"Oh yes, the 13 Ghosts incident." Velma giggled. She was quite happy she missed all of that nonsense. "I didn't know that you still cared for her like that."

Shaggy fell silent. Velma had assumed that it was because the situation was too painful to talk about, but just like before, she missed a key clue when it came to her friends. She didn't realize it at the time, but that was her biggest Achilles heel.

Shaggy's silence had nothing to do with Daphne. Maybe there was a time a long time ago where that may had been the case, but honestly those feelings had long since died. In fact, his silence was less because of what Velma said, and more because of what he nearly said. He had a secret and he didn't want to share that part of his life with Velma. At least not yet, not when she needed him to be what she thought he was, not what he really was.

The silence lingered far too long for Velma's liking, and she could see that Ned was pretty much done with Scooby, and he had the looks of a man who was going to come over to where they were. "So, is there anything else that you wanted to talk to me about?" She already had one big story and the journalist in her wanted another.

Shaggy looked out the window. He knew that things were not looking good for what Velma was wanting, but he had to voice his concerns. "Like, did Fred and Daphne actually tell you that they were coming?

Velma took a deep breath. She was hoping that no one was going to ask that question. "Honestly, no."

Then:

It was nearly time. Fred's fingers danced nervously in his pocket. They would grip the box that held the engagement ring and then they would let it go. Then he would panic. He could feel the box in his pocket, but maybe it wasn't there? His fingers would find it again, and then there was a sigh of relief. And this was followed by his utter fear that the ring wasn't there at all. It was obvious that the ring box was in there, sure, he could feel that, but what if the engagement ring had gone missing?

The worry that the thought brought to him, caused him to reach into his pocket and plucked open the box. He felt his fingers inside the velvety inside of the box and found the ring, sitting exactly where it was supposed to be. That fear had gone but was now replaced with another, even less rationale one; what if someone had switched rings on him?

He knew that the ring that was going to give Daphne wasn't as nice as say Daisy's ring was. But Daphne's sister was a doctor and she was engaged to a neurosurgeon. It turned out that college aged kids didn't have the same amount of money that doctors did. Who knew? But that wasn't important. It was his ring and he picked it out for Daphne and he was ready to give it to her and now someone had stolen it and replaced it with another ring? Who could do something like that?

His immediate thought was Shaggy. It seemed like the sort of thing that he would do as a joke. Or maybe because Shaggy was out to get revenge and get back with Daphne. "Come on Jones," he muttered. That was clearly ridiculous. Shaggy was one of his best friends and wouldn't have done that to him. Also, he was pretty sure that Shaggy was in another state. He hadn't seen him for years. No, Shaggy didn't do that to him. It must've been someone else, but who?

Eight-year-old Fred popped up with the answer. "It's Red Herring!" But adult Fred knew better. It was never Red Herring. And when Fred took the ring out of his pocket, he realized that something else was true; no one did anything with the ring. It was still in the box, exactly where it was supposed to be. No one had taken it and replaced it with a fake.

Fred grinned broadly as Daphne came out of her classroom. She looked nervous, but then again, so was Fred. She saw him and pulled up from her frantic walking pace. "Daph! I have been waiting for you! I need to talk to you about something!"

Daphne nodded slowly, her eyes not looking at Fred. "I need to talk to you too." She took a deep breath. "I would like to go first, please.

Fred smiled brightly. "Sure, Daph, go ahead. You first."

Daphne had been planning on saying this for a while. And it seemed like now was the perfect time, if such a time could be perfect. "Fred," she said without looking at him. "I think it's time for us to break up."

Fred couldn't believe his ears. "Daph…what do you mean?"

Daphne closed her eyes. "Please, don't ask me anything. Don't make this harder than it has to be." Without saying another word, she turned and half walked, half ran away from the man who was set to propose to her.

Fred was left standing in some grass, the smell of lilacs drifting in his nose, the image of students playing Frisbee, and the sound of traffic flowing by. He heard and saw and smelled all of that, but at this point, the only thing that he could feel was the breaking of his own heart.

Now:

Shaggy had the bags packed and was waiting outside. Velma had made it clear that it was time to go, but he still had some doubts. He couldn't even be sure that Fred and Daphne were coming. Velma was worried about it too, and he could tell. "Like, what happens if they don't show up? I mean, like, we could be standing out here, waiting on nothing, man."

Velma sighed. This was her concern, but no matter what, she knew what was going to happen. "If they don't show up, we're simply going to have to go on without them."

Scooby looked up hurt at his friends. "Rey are roing to rum." No one had bothered to talk to Scooby about what was going on. He was the mascot of the group, the sidekick. A lot of times his thoughts and concerns weren't properly addressed, but that was fine, he didn't care. Scooby could tell that his friends were all tired and hiding things. He had the sneaking suspicion that when the others showed up, that it wouldn't be the last secret that would come out. He thought it was odd, back in the day, there were no secrets with this group. And now, they threatened to tear the group apart before it ever got started. And Scooby knew that Ned was bringing his own secrets to the group as well. Hopefully things would get better sooner rather than later.

Shaggy scratched Scooby behind his ears. He was hopeful that things would go well, but there was something else that bothered him. If this was a search and rescue, was Mystery Inc really the best suited for this? They dealt with guys in a mask- that was their specialty. This seemed serious. Way more serious than a land grab ever was. They had grown up and so had their cases. "I'm sure they will buddy."

Ned wasn't as sure. He hadn't heard exactly what went down with Fred and Daphne, but he knew that they had broken up. And even that was six years ago. Life wasn't going to stand still, no matter what Velma may have wished. And how would Rhett and Belinda fit into the group. Nothing was adding up to anything good with this. And Velma couldn't see it coming. Besides, what happened if they didn't come? All four of them had lives and couldn't take time out of their day to come down to Georgia to meet up and then go up to New Jersey because their friend needed them. Daphne was a news reporter, Fred ran a garage. Sure, Shaggy didn't seem to have anything going on, but the others were real adults with real issues.  
"Well, at least we won't be hurting for transportation. We still have our van."

"We may need it," Velma said. "It was kind of crowded before when there was only five of us. With eight people, it would be really rough."

Ned didn't say what he felt. His actual thought was 'Oh goody, I'm on the B team. Can't wait to hang out with the other also runs.' He was bitter. It was always hard to move in Velma's life and now trying to find room with four of her oldest friends and two new people was a daunting task.

"Rook!" Scooby jumped up and pointed to the distance. "ROOK!"

It was the Mystery Machine. Her friends had shown up after all. She stood closer to Shaggy then she had intended and could feel Ned's eyes on them, but she didn't care. Her friends had actually shown up, things were going to be okay. The doors opened and out came Daphne and Rhett, holding hands. And then Fred came out. But there was something about him that Velma caught immediately. But it was Shaggy who managed to vocalize her observation before she could. "Like, where's Nancy?"


	4. Episode 4: Ghosts Across America

Then:

Ned Buchill had just gotten the type of job that he had wanted. He was a recent graduate from UCLA and had managed to hang his hat on a weekly TV show. He knew people that would kill to get a job in show business right out of school. Normally, they had to pay their dues and work their way through the world. Start off as a gopher and move on up. Instead, he was found by J.J. Hakimoto and given a chance to start off his dream.

Ned had wanted to become a camera man. He realized that he was never going to be anything big in Hollywood, but still, being a good camera man made great money. And he was given a perfect chance to make a name for himself. But there was just one slight problem that he saw. "I'm sorry, the show is about what?"

J.J. sighed. He knew that it was going to hard to get Ned onboard. Ned wanted to deal with real world stuff. And J.J. was offering him that. But he also knew that Ned had the chops needed to really bring home what J.J. saw. "It's a ghost hunting show."

"Oh good," Ned said bitterly, "I was worried that we didn't have enough of those. I mean, wasn't it enough when we added 'Holy Crap We're Also Looking at Ghosts Just like Those Other Guys?'"

J.J. grinned. "Well, that was subtle."

"You think?" Ned nodded smartly. "I was worried that this was way too over the top to be effective."

"No, no, it was a challenge. But subtly won out. Good play."

Ned couldn't help but grin. "OK, so tell me about this woman."

"So, her specialty isn't exactly what you would think. She doesn't believe in these ghosts. And she isn't planning on telling people that they are real. She's out to prove that they are fakes."

Ned nodded. "Well, at least it's an original gimmick. I assume that means we won't be showing stupid things off as Satan's horse shoe or whatever passes for proof on those shows."

"Wow," J.J. said with a whistle, "I hope not. Can you imagine how embarrassing that would be?"

"I can," Ned said evenly, "It's why I don't want to do this."

J.J. sighed. "It's a good point. I understand that. But I am telling you, she has a pedigree that you won't be able to turn down."

Ned sighed, running a hand through his dark brown hair. "I can't believe that I am doing this, but hit me."

"She has spent her entire life solving mysteries that has been nothing but guys in masks."

"Her entire life? How old is she?"

"She's 22."

Ned raised an eyebrow. "Wow. Her entire life? She's my age. How many years can that possibly be?"

"Sixteen."

Ned's eyes shot open wide. "What? How is that even possible? I mean, what is this magic woman's name?"

"Her name is Velma Dinkley."

Now:

It didn't take long for Fred to explain that he and Nancy had decided to take a break from their relationship. There were some things that were unsaid. Velma could tell that it wouldn't be the last thing that wasn't mentioned. But none of that mattered. This was the moment she had been looking forward to since she had the idea.

As soon as Daphne had gotten out of the Mystery Machine, the two long time friends had embraced in a hug that seemed to never end.

Fred and Shaggy stood apart from each other and seemed to size the other man up for a few moments, before they embraced for a moment. "Like, am I glad to see you," the tall, lanky Shaggy said.

Fred grinned broadly. "I'm glad to see you too. Honestly, before Velma called, I didn't even realize how much I missed the gang before now." He paused. And he realized something else about his life. He didn't miss Nancy. He should've. They had been broken up only for a few hours, and he was happier than he had been in years.

Once the two girls broke up their hug, they turned to the boys. And then the awkwardness really set in, once it became clear that the five old friends weren't the only ones in the group. "Soooo," Daphne said as she rocked on her heels. "Who's this?" She was motioning towards Ned.

"This is Ned Burchill, he's my camera man." Velma motioned towards Ned, who nodded and waved. She was going to say more, when she saw something that she wasn't one hundred percent on. "Is that Red Herring?"

Daphne nodded as she smiled. She held up her hand, showing off the engagement ring that sparkled in the headlights of the van. "He goes by Rhett now."

"Does he make you happy?"

"He does."

Velma went over and gave Rhett a hug. "That's all that matters." That is what was said out loud, but in Rhett's ear she said, "If you hurt her, I will kill you. And I'm smart; I know where to hide the body."

Rhett pulled back, and if anyone noticed the look of fear on his face, no one said anything. But he made a mental note to not say a word and fade into the background. He decided to go stand next to Ned, and see how he was going to handle this situation. He had known this group since he was a child, but he wasn't part of them. With luck, he could bond with Ned over that.

Daphne smiled at Shaggy. "So, how's life been?"

"Like, more or less what I always wanted, ya know what I mean, man?"

Scooby looked at Shaggy. He had been with Shaggy on every step along the way, and he could safely say that their life had gone in ways that wasn't on their agenda. Sure, they ended up where they wanted to be, with Uncle Nat, but they certainly took a long time to get where they wanted to go. But Scooby had promised that he wouldn't say anything, and he was going to be loyal all the way. Shaggy would share the rest when he was ready.

Velma moved over to Fred, and whispered to him, "I'm sorry about Nancy."

"I'm not," he said softly.

Velma was surprised. "Why don't we get our stuff and we'll be on our way. I am so glad that we're back together."

Then:

Ned wasn't sure what he was going to be seeing when he met with Velma. He had some ideas, sure. When he pressed J.J. for answers, he found that she had connections to a show that he once watched a long time ago, the 13 Ghosts of Vincent Van Ghoul.

He had known of Van Ghoul for years, after all, he was a world famous movie star. He was never an A-Lister, but Van Ghoul was actually the star in several of Ned's favorite movies, but he wasn't going to admit that to anyone. Whenever someone asked about his favorite movie, he gave some artsy type of movie, or maybe Rear Window, Psycho, North by Northwest, something along those lines, but never any of Van Ghoul's movies, but Mutant Bee was certainly his favorite.

So of course, when Van Ghoul announced a summer run for his reality show, Ned was there. Granted, he paid attention to a lot of reality shows. He considered it keeping up with his craft, but when the 13 Ghosts was on, it was something else.

He was jealous of the kids on that show, Mystery Inc, and he wished he could be on it. He certainly deserved it more than that beatnik Shaggy. He seemed like a cool guy, but not someone who appreciated the greatness that was next to him. And that dog, Scooby, please, neither him nor the tiny one, Scrappy was worth anything. Flim Flam, was a preteen con artist. He seemed interesting enough, but he also clearly didn't fit in with the rest of the group. But then there was Daphne. She was clearly the brains of the group, but you could tell that she wasn't quite used to the role. And he had a huge crush on her, but anyone who saw that show did.

And this woman, Velma, had been a partner of the group, but she was away at math camp when the show happened. From what he had been told, she had a really negative opinion of the show, but Ned had a feeling that she wouldn't have said that if she was part of the show.

J.J. had arranged the lunch meeting at a small café, and when Velma showed up, she was wearing exactly what Ned had been told that she would be, an orange sweater and a red skirt. She was mousy looking, and seemed to be nervous. "Hey."

Ned smiled as she sat down. "So, you hunt ghosts?"

"Jinkies!" It was the first time he ever heard her say that, but it wouldn't be near the last. "Not at all. Honestly, I don't believe in them."

Ned smiled. "Well, that cottons with what I was told. So what is this show?"

Velma smiled. "It's something I've been pitching around since I left Duke. I think that I am going to give a bit of history about things that are supernatural in nature, and then we try to debunk them. I have a theory…"

"Guys in masks?" Ned offered.

"Actually, yes." She smiled. "How did you know that?"

"I watched the 13 Ghosts back in the day."

She smiled. "I hated that show so much, but I have to admit that I did draw my inspiration from that. They just didn't add anything historical to it. It's what my big change is."

"Well, that and you don't have Vincent Van Ghoul."

"Well, there's that too," she said with a smile. "You know, Ned, I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship."

Now:

Rhett was unsure where he fit in. It seemed as if everyone else had a place in this group. Sure, he had known them for his entire life, but Daphne and Velma had moved into catching up on recent events, shooting knowing glances at himself and Ned, while Fred and Shaggy seemed to be doing a decent job of shooting the breeze as well. Strangely enough, Rhett felt that Shaggy and Fred's eyes were resting on Rhett and Ned too, but for possibly different reasons. And then it dawned on him, that was the common ground and where he could turn for companionship, Ned.

He walked over to where Ned was standing off to the side, clearly trying to figure out where he belonged in the new landscape. This meant that he was the closest ally that Rhett had at the time. He felt that it was a funny thought, but he went with it. "Hey, Ned, right? Your Velma's camera guy?"

Ned nodded. "And you were Rhett? Daphne's fiancé?"

"I am." The two men seemed intent to size each other up, before they broke into smiles. "I am so glad that there is someone else here."

Ned laughed. "I totally get what you mean. But aren't you like life long friends with these guys?"

"Life long is appropriate," Rhett said, "But I wouldn't call myself friends. Honestly, with any of them except for Daphne or Shaggy. Honestly, I used to be a jerk and call them dweebs all the time. Things changed for me when I went to Calloway's Military School in-between middle school and high school. I missed their biggest mysteries, but I was there from the start. And they hated me." He paused. "Deserved it."

Ned smiled. "Honestly, I kinda figured I would be in the same boat with Velma, but things worked out rather well for us. She's rather smart and…" he paused, not wanting to add anything more. "So, what's your take on the situation?"

Rhett sighed. "Huh." He looked over at Daphne and Velma. "Well, they are catching up on gossip. Velma always acts like she isn't interested, but she is. Can't help it, she's very inquisitive and she sees it as fact gathering. Daphne is very much a girly girl. Not like she used to be, she's more dangerous now. Apparently she got tired of being Danger Prone and learned how to fight. But they are talking about us."

Ned nodded. "That they are. But did you notice that Fred and Shaggy are talking about us too?"

Rhett smiled slightly. "Yep. Jones and I go way back and our dislike of each other is well known. I was a jerk to him, but he's a dweeb. Did you know that when we were kids, he always said that I was the creep in the mask?"

"Were you?"

"Well, twice, but he blamed me way more than that. And it doesn't help that he dated Daphne before I did."

"I bet that's an interesting story."

"It is," Rhett agreed, "but I'll have to tell you about it later. Now is not the right time."

"What's Shaggy thinking?"

Rhett shrugged. "I can never get a grasp on what Rogers is thinking. That dog has always been easier to read."

Ned laughed again.

Then:

Ned didn't really understand how much running it was going to take in order for him to do his job properly. He had seen so many ghost hunting shows, that even after talking to Velma, he was sure that it would be a lot of walking around, filming in the dark, and then random noises that they would say was clearly the ghost. Maybe some weird recordings and then he could call it a day.  
How he wished that was what this job required. Instead, he was running while trying to keep the camera as steady as possible. "This isn't what I signed up for!" He yelled, following after Velma.  
"This is exactly what you signed up for! I told you guys in masks!"  
Ned stumbled slightly and turned his head back to look to see if they were still being followed. "You didn't say they would try to kill us!"  
"Jinkies, I didn't know he was going to! Most of the time they are trying to scare us away."  
"Well, it worked on me," Ned grumbled. "What are we hoping to do with this again?"  
"We've been over this!" Velma said as she nimbly moved her way through the woods. "We're going to capture this monster and find out who he really is!"  
Ned didn't say anything, but he really didn't appreciate being the bait in all of this. They were going to have to have a long talk after this episode was done.  
Suddenly, Velma tripped over an uprooted tree limb, which struck Ned as odd. She had been moving with solid speed and seemed to be able to sense where to place her feet. It was obvious that this was not the first time that she had done something like this before. But the fall also had unexpected consequences, her glasses flew off. "Help! I can't see without my glasses!"  
She was moving in a direction that he didn't expect her to. She was moving towards what could only be called a giant octopus that walked on land. He had no idea to do in this situation, but his instincts kicked in. He dropped his camera, where luckily, it was able to pick up everything that was going on. He grabbed Velma and pulled her back, causing the monster to take a step, which was actually the entire plan. As he hit a trip wire, a net fell on top of him. The added weights at the end of the net caused him to crash to the ground and get stuck there.  
"That was stupid," Ned said as he handed Velma her glasses.  
"No, that was well read," Velma said as she stood up, brushing off her skirt. "I had a read of what kind of person you were. I knew you would do that." She grinned as she motioned to the camera that Ned went over to retrieve. "And you even managed to drop the camera in such a way as to keep it on the action."  
"Luck," Ned said.  
"Don't believe in it." She turned to the walking octopus. It was a good looking costume, but she knew it was just that. He had eight tentacles that went with his two legs, but only ever used two tentacles total, one on each side, at any point. "Now let's see who the monster really is."  
She reached down and pulled off the mask, leaving Ned in surprise, "Wait, Samantha Walkers? But she's the woman who ran the pet shop. Why would she do that?"  
"That's simple," Velma said before she went into the first explanation that Ned would ever see of her. It had a lasting impact.

Now:

Velma wasn't sure what she was going to see when they arrived. She had been trying to prep the rest of the gang to be ready from anything from a man in a mask to an actual devil, but there was no way that they were ready for what actually awaited them.

There were police everywhere, and J.J. was already being helped by some paramedics. He had a blue blanket wrapped around him, and a cup of coffee in his hands. He looked up and saw Velma and smiled broadly. "I was worried that you all were killed!"

J.J sat with his an ice pack on his head. He was not used to something like this, "You left me." He wanted to yell it. He wanted to scream at the top of his lungs so that he could make Velma and Ned understand what egregious sin that they had committed. But the only reason that he didn't, was because this headache of his was basically ten times the worse hangover of his life.

"No, I was so confused and disoriented and the only thing I could think to help you out was to get the gang back together." Velma knew that it sounded stupid as she said it. The wind picked up and it became clear that something bad was coming in.

"And you?" He asked Ned evenly.

"I didn't know what to do. Velma is the boss, I did what she wanted me to."

"J.J, what happened in there?" Velma asked.

"I have no idea, honestly." He shook his head and grimaced. That was a mistake. "The wall came crashing down, and a brick smacked me in the head. Next thing I know, I am falling in the water and I pass out. I am not sure how, but the police were there. And then you all show up. Thanks for calling the cops, by the way."

"Uhmm.. we didn't," Ned said.

"You didn't call the cops?"

Velma shook her head slowly, and J.J. rubbed his forehead. "I can't believe you!"

"Well, we've always been able to handle things on our own in the past."

"Look, I'm angry with the two of you, but it did open my eyes to something. I never knew how dangerous all of this could be. I mean, you were doing this when you were a kid?"

Velma shrugged. "It didn't seem all that dangerous back then. Even when I was a teenager, it didn't seem all that bad. Now looking back, I guess we were almost killed several times, but it seemed like good natured fun. I mean, there were plenty of others doing the same thing."

J.J. shook his head. "Oh yes, the teenage sleuth craze. I can't believe that was a fad. Did you ever run into any of those others?"

"A few," Velma said, "But there were plenty getting some press that we never got to meet. I think we were the most famous though."

"One of them had a talking car as a mascot. Another claimed they had a ghost cat? I mean, really?"

Velma shrugged. "You have a point. Things were more dangerous out there than we thought it would be. We'll be more careful next time."

"No, you won't."

"What do you mean?"

"This wasn't some old man who was trying to keep you kids off his yard! This was life and death! Any of us could've died down there and I thought that you had!"

"You're right, I didn't think…"

J.J. had built up his steam, and with that, all the rage that Hollywood could bring with it. "I can't have you do anything like this again."

"Of course not, J.J. I promise you that nothing like this will happen again. We will be more careful."

J.J. shook his head. "You can't promise that. We both know that you can't stop doing this. It's part of who you are. But I don't have to be a party to it anymore."

"You aren't going with us on any more of these adventures?"

"That's one way to put it," J.J. said softly.

"Velma, we're canceling your show. You will not have any more airtime on the network, and we are pulling your crew." J.J. closed his eyes. "It's for your own good. Oh, and if I even hear you sniffing around the Jersey Devil, I'll press charges on you. You may think they won't stick, but I can't keep you and your friends in court for years."

Velma lowered her head. "Don't fire Ned. It's not his fault. He was following orders. Please?"

"Ned is not fired."

Velma muttered, "Thank you," as she left the room. She wasn't going to let him see how upset she was.

Ned looked after her and towards J.J. "Ned," the producer said, "I have a lot of plans for your future."

Then:

J.J wasn't convinced that this was the best course of action, but when the company wanted something done, it was done. They had asked him to come along with the show and offer a counterpoint to everything. Which he thought was odd, as Velma was by far the most scientific of any of the haunted houses shows. She was also able to provide the history for the haunting and then broke down the reason that the person in the mask did it. In fact, she hadn't even suggested that any of the ghosts that she dealt with was real, just that she wanted them to be.

"So…you are coming with us?" Velma asked slowly. "OK. I don't have any problems with that, but what's the point?"

"They want me to do a counter point, but I had an idea that I think would work for us."

"What is the idea?" Ned raised an eyebrow. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. J.J. was a pretty smart guy, and Ned was worried that having a second guy around may throw off the… feel of the show? That sounded like a good way to argue it.

"Well, what if we change the type of cases we go after?"

"How so?" Ned asked.

"Well, you guys always go after like haunted houses and things like that. What if we really go deeper into history? We could really go after some more interesting fictional cases. Bigfoot, Area 51, stuff like that."

Velma raised an eyebrow. "The Jersey Devil?"

J.J. nodded. "Yeah, things like that. It would all work. I mean, we still do the whole modern mysteries like we have been. You do good work, I don't want to get in the way of that, but looking for clues for older mysteries might be good too. Who knows, maybe we can go look into unsolved mysteries like Jack the Ripper or things of that nature."

Velma looked over at Ned. "What do you think?"

"I think it has merit. It's a hook that could come into play. So long as we don't over play it too much. Nothing like 'The Jersey Devil revealed' unless we actually do something. We have integrity."

"Yeah," Velma said bitterly, "I think CNN is going to be given us a call any day now. Have you been reading our Youtube comment page?"

"No, I don't read any Youtube comment page. Why would I ever do that? That's where common sense goes to die," Ned said with a wink.

"Well, they think what we do is fake."

"Well, it is," J.J said. "I mean, these are real people, but the monsters aren't real at all."

"Still," Velma said, "It stings." She shook her head. "J.J. you are in. I like you, you'll do great, right, Ned?"

Ned bit his lip. "Yep. We both like you. You are totally welcome onboard."

J.J grinned. "Great! Let's start to research our first episode. It'll be huge! The folk will love it!"

Now:

Velma sat down, head in hands on the corner. "Jinkies," was all that she was able to say without breaking down. She was stopped in sorrow by a hand that was placed on her shoulder. Well, a paw, actually.

"Hey," Scooby said as he sat down next to her. "You rokay?"

Velma nodded slightly. "I just got fired from my job."

"Ruh roh!"

"Yep."

"Like, that's crazy man!" Shaggy said as he sat on the other side of her. "I've been fired from a lot of jobs." He paused. "Like, a lot of jobs. But there's no way that you deserve that!"

Velma smiled slightly. "Thank you."

"Do you own the show's copy right?" Daphne said as she walked up to the trio.

"I do."

Daphne smiled. "Great! See, you own the show. If they break the contract, then the show is able to move to another network now. I could place some calls to some of my co-workers and see if there are any leads that can be tracked down."

"What about Ned," Fred asked as he joined them.

"He wasn't fired," Velma said with a sigh. "I guess J.J. is going to find another job for him."

"If you need help or anything," Shaggy said happily, "Count me in. It's not like I'm doing anything useful. I'll be more than happy to help you out."

"Re too!" Scooby said as he looked at his master, finally happy to see something of a spark returning to his face. It had been a very long time since Shaggy had seemed to care about doing anything.

"Without the company, you'll probably need someone to drive you." Fred waved towards the Mystery Machine, "Well, I happen to know a certain van that has a proven track record when it comes to these things, and a driver who owns his own business and can take as much time off as you need him to."

Daphne crossed her arms over her chest as she looked at Fred. "And call it a hunch, but I just don't think that Nancy is going to ever let me accomplish anything useful now." She paused. "Especially now. Count me in if you want."

This time, Velma couldn't hold back the tears as she stood up and hugged her friends. "This is just great! Mystery Inc is back again! Now we just need to figure out where we go from here."

"Well," a voice from behind them called, "I don't really have a lot going on right now. And if we're going to sell this to a network, we'll need a camera man. If you all wouldn't mind, I would love to take over the roll of camera man for you all."

Daphne grinned at her fiancé, "Rhett, I think it's safe to say that I speak for everyone when I say you are more than welcome to join us."

"Reah!"

"Yeah," Fred said with a lot less enthusiasm than the other two said. But if Rhett noticed this, he didn't say anything, and instead, he joined in on the hug as well.

"Well," another voice called out, "I see that all the roles have been filled here. But I can't help but think that with a group this large, you'll probably need two camera men. Assuming that I'm welcome to join?"

Velma looked up to see Ned. "Did J.J. fire you after all?"

"No," Ned said softly, "I quit. See, I believe in you, and I want to be there when you finally find what you are looking for. What do you say?"

"I say that Mystery Inc is back!"

Yet to Come:

He was being haunted. Haunted by the ghosts that he once portrayed in his movies. Vincent Van Ghoul hadn't slept in days. Every where he turned, there was another monster. And he wasn't sure what he could do to save himself. That's when the actor saw something on the TV that made him realize that he already knew the perfect people to save him; Mystery Incorporated.

Vincent Van Ghoul wasn't the only man who was watching the TV when a report was being done on Mystery Inc. This man also knew them quite well, but he didn't have need of them. In fact, they needed him. They didn't realize it, but they were in terrible danger, and the only way that they were going to survive was if someone led them through it. But there was no way that they were going to trust him. And so Mr. F had to lead them without them knowing who he was.

There were five girls who were recently graduated from high school. They were lost in the world, and were seeking out their favorite teachers. With luck, they would be given guidance like they had been given once upon a time. But now they didn't know where to find Scooby and Shaggy.

Someone else was looking for another member of the Mystery Inc gang. However, this man knew where to find Fred Jones. But he was worried, if Fred wasn't found in time, then this would be the last year that Camp Little Moose would be open. And even then, it may still be the last time that anyone left Camp Little Moose alive.

Alive, it was the way that this woman wanted to stay. But she had made some powerful enemies. She lost track of Mystery Inc when they all graduated high school, but if she didn't find Velma Dinkley, then she wasn't sure what was going to happen, but it wasn't going to be good.

When Nancy Chang caught up to Daphne Blake, nothing good was going to happen. Daphne had taken her everything. She didn't need to be told that Fred never cared for Nancy the way that he cared for Daphne. And the fact that he left told Nancy everything that she needed to know. And when she got Daphne, things were never going to be the same again.

Things weren't the same for him now as they were when he was a kid. When he was hanging out with Mystery Inc, he was seen as annoying but he had calmed down. But deep down, he wanted another chance to prove himself, to prove that he still had some Puppy Power left.

The three young ladies hadn't left their hometown yet, but they were on their way to a major record deal. But they were concerned about the tales of a Witch's Ghost that haunted their town. The Hex Girls had never met Mystery Inc, but they were about to become intertwined with each other's destinies.

Destiny was a weird thing, but Beau Neville was going to get to the bottom of a mystery that had been bothering him. There was word of a treasure, and he was going to find it.

Solving mysteries had been his life. But when he split from Mystery Inc, he had regrets. It was finally time for the magnifying glass to return. Dum dum Dum DUM!"

But these people were not alone in their desires to see Mystery Inc. This last woman was a secret as well, but that secret wasn't going to stay hidden. And when she came back, Shaggy's life was never going to be the same again.

Daphne wasn't the only Blake sister, in fact she was one of six. But what she didn't know was that her sisters were about to affect her life in ways she couldn't see coming.

Wilfred was an amazing husband. He was actually the very best. So much so that when an opportunity came to Maggie "Sugie" Rogers, he let her explore it, even though it could've lead to danger .

Danger may have been what Madeline Dinkley needed. Her life was in a rut since she left Clown College. But there was a new offer that was almost too tempting to pass up.

Chuck Magnum never met a challenge he couldn't resist. And now he found a way to show his old friend, Fred Jones, just what he was missing out on.

It had been years since he was relevant. His friends were still around, but never seemed like they did anything. He felt like it was time to prove he was still Funky.

His Angels still took care of him, but he longed for adventure. Unga Bunga!

They were still a band, but they wanted to solve mysteries. It seemed that no matter what they did, they still got no respect, no respect at all.

They were also a band, and like most of the others, they longed for more. In fact, it was probably time for them to put on their long tails and ears for hats one more time.

Of the teen mystery solvers, his group was the only one still chugging away. They didn't get the press that they used to, but all of that was about to change faster than you could say "Vroom-a-zoom-zoom!"


	5. Episode 5: The First Mystery

Then:

Scooby Dum had always wanted to be a police officer. When he heard that his cousin had started a mystery solving group, he knew that he needed to be part of it. He got permission from Ma and Pa Skillet to go off with them during the summer. In fact, he was a vital piece of solving the case of the Gator Ghoul! Plus he got to save Ma and Pa Skillet's company. He was a real hero! And now, he was the first new member of Mystery Inc!

This was his first official mission, to catch the Demented Doll. Scooby Dum didn't seem to understand what the big issue was. It was a doll, he used to play with those back when he was a pup. There were obviously some differences between the Demented Doll and the ones he played with as a kid. The biggest was that this doll was nearly seven feet tall and could breathe fire. Also, it's eyes were glowing with an orange fire. It spoke like the dolls that he played with, but it only ever said things like, "I want to hug you to death" or "Feed me your soul." Otherwise, it was basically the same thing, but he still ran with the rest of the group.

He was supposed to do…something. He couldn't quite remember. He did remember Fred saying that he needed to stand in this one spot and when the Doll showed up, he was supposed to…pull a lever? That sounded right. And the lever was right here! Clearly, he was supposed to pull on this now! So he did so.

Everything went exactly the way that he understood it. The lever let a net go that was going to drop on the Doll. There was just one problem, the Doll wasn't there. He felt that Fred shouldn't have had him pull the lever if the Doll wasn't there. Instead, he managed to catch Shaggy and Scooby in the net. "Are they the Doll?" He didn't think that was likely, but he couldn't disagree with what he saw. He pulled the lever, it fell on the Doll. It fell on Shaggy and Scooby. Therefore, they must be the Doll.

Well, he wasn't going to stand for that. He ran out of his hiding spot and stared at his cousin. "Why? Why are you the Doll?"

Scooby seemed confused. If he was following the plot at all, he would've realized that he was the villain. "I'm not the doll!"

Scooby Dum didn't buy it. All the clues added up. But he was confused when he heard Fred yell out, "They aren't the Doll! The Doll is right there!" Fred pointed behind Scooby Dum, but that wasn't the way that the net fell. Fred's plans didn't work. Maybe Scooby Dum should've taken over the leadership. He turned around and saw the Doll staring at him. But it was clearly just the costume. Scooby Doo and Shaggy was the Doll, therefore this couldn't have had a person in it. So Dum decided to do something very brave and poke the Doll in the eye. There was an odd cracking noise, like glass breaking, and the Doll fell back.

"My eyes! There's glass in it!" The Doll turned around and ran, directly into a wall. He stumbled backwards, and fell over a set of stairs, crashing into a suit of armor at the bottom. The Doll had managed to get it's head off and it wasn't Shaggy or Scooby Doo.

"I knew it!" Velma said as she ran down. "It's Joshua, the journalist! All the clues add up!"

Scooby Dum raised his head up at the word "clue" and wagged his tail. "I did it! I solved the case! Scooby Dooby Dum!"

Now:

Ned was sitting on a bench next to a picnic table, a red visor on his head as he tried to keep the sun out of his eyes. "So, Rhett and I are the first new members of Mystery Inc, right?"

Velma raised an eyebrow, but never looked up from the newspaper she was reading. "You tell me what you think."

Ned closed his eyes as he tilted his head back. "I guess not. Daphne, weren't you on a reality show once with these guys?"

Rhett smirked, sitting down next to his fiancée. "She was! The Thirteen Ghosts of Vincent Van Ghoul!"

Daphne laughed. "Yeah, that was a fun summer. It was Shaggy and Scooby and myself."

"Like, don't forget Scrappy!" Shaggy said as he put the finishing touches on his sandwich.

"I don't think anyone can forget Scrappy," Ned said. He looked at the sandwich. "What is on that?"

"Not much. Just some salami, sausage, pepperoni, hamburger, slice of pizza, some Scooby Snacks, y'know, the basics!"

"Ron't forget the rot sauce!" Scooby added as he stared at the sandwich, licking his lips.

Daphne shook her head and turned away from the sandwich. It was starting to become too much for her to see. "Obviously Vincent Van Ghoul was on the show too." She grimaced. "So was Flim Flam."

"Who's Flim…?" Ned started, but he was cut off as Velma put a hand on his shoulder and shook her head.

Fred was cleaning the windows of the Mystery Machine, but he still raised his voice to join in on the conversation. "Don't forget that Scooby Dum was part of the group too!"

"Yeah, he's like Scooby's cousin." Shaggy finished the hot sauce addition and closed his eyes, licking his lips in anticipation of the meal he was about to eat. "Don't forget, we had another new member during that time."

Scooby grimaced, but he quickly inhaled greatly, pulling in every bit of substance that the sandwich had, leaving only the two pieces of bread. He swallowed it all in one gulp. It was the most interesting and disgusting thing that Ned had ever seen. "Bernie Gumsher." The anger in Scooby's voice was pretty clear.

"Don't forget Hot Dog Water," Fred added.

"Her name is Marcie," Velma said with ice in her voice.

Ned realized that this conversation had stirred up things that he didn't intend to, so he changed tactics. "So what are we going to do? I know when we were on the show, the network would've given us some leads. How did you all always find these mysteries?"

Daphne laughed. "Normally, they found us. We would just drive around and it always seemed like we ran into them."

"Is that the plan now?"

"Not at all," Velma said putting down her paper on the picnic table. "We found our mystery."

Then:

""Ta dadada ta daaa! Puppy Power!" Scrappy Doo was the happiest pup that ever lived. He was with his hero, his Uncle Scooby and his friends. Scooby and Shaggy had been there when Scrappy was born, and they were able to convince his mother to let him go with them. His entire life was grand.

Right now, he was trying to get his uncle to let him prove that this scarecrow just needed a good splatting! His Uncle wasn't really going for it. Instead, he grabbed Scrappy and started to run the other way. "Let me at 'em! Let me at 'em!"

"Nope! I promised your mom I'd protect you!"

Scrappy wrangled his way out of Scooby's arms and ran towards the scarecrow. Scooby stopped his cowardly ways and sighed. He didn't want to be brave, but his nephew was making his life harder on him. He did promise Ruby that Scrappy would be safe. And he wouldn't be safe if he didn't honor that promise.

He couldn't hear what the rest of the gang was saying, but he could see them waving their arms. They were probably warning him of the danger, but he knew that it was real. But the real danger hit him as he turned back to grab his nephew.

"Scrappy Doo!" He called. He couldn't see him anywhere. There was no way that he was going to be able to explain this to Ruby, at least not with her becoming more scarier than anything that Scooby had ever seen.

Scrappy, for his part, was pretty sure that this was a cunning plan that his uncle had came up with. Scooby was going to distract the scarecrow, and that would leave Scrappy able to splat him!

Scooby had ran right up to the scarecrow, skidding to a stop. He lowered his head to the ground and covered it up with his paws. He shivered and shook so hard that Scrappy thought that his spots were going to fall right off. His Uncle Scooby was the best actor he ever saw! Even better than Vincent Van Ghoul!

Scrappy took the rope that he had borrowed from Fred and swung from a tree branch, crashing into the scarecrow. Hay flew everywhere, and Scrappy vanished into the pile.

"Scrappy!" Scooby started to dig quickly into the pile. "How did you do that to him!"

Suddenly, the rest of the gang came over. "Jinkies! Are you OK, Scooby Doo?" Velma asked.

"It wasn't a man in a mask!" Scooby was so sure of the fact that it was another person dressed up that this nearly destroyed his world view. "And Scrappy is missing!"

"It's okay, man," Shaggy said, putting his hand on his friend's shoulder.

"There wasn't any real danger," Fred said, "We were trying to get your attention."

"We were trying to tell you, silly," Daphne said, "It was just a regular scarecrow that the wind was blowing!"

Scooby stared at the pumpkin head and it moved. Scooby leapt into the air into Shaggy's hands. The pumpkin fell over on it's side, and Scrappy Doo was under it. "Uncle Scooby?" The entire gang laughed, with Scooby even joining in!

Now:

Rhett raised an eyebrow. "I have no idea what you just said."

Fred smirked. "I'm not surprised somehow."

Rhett turned to look at him and sized him up. "You got a problem with me Jones? Why don't you come out and say it?"

Shaggy stepped in between the two of them. "Like, not now guys. We've gotta solve this mystery." He paused. "Zoinks! Did I just say that?"

Velma crossed her arms over her chest. "I agree. That's enough posing. Now I'm going say this again, we are going into Portsmouth and dealing with a small problem that they've been dealing with. There is a haunted mill. Someone has been chasing off the local farmers. I think we all can see what's happening here."

"Like, we're gonna go get some Skyline Chili and catch a Reds game?"

"I rote ror rat!" Scooby said helpfully.

Ned shook his head. "Naw, the Reds suck. I say we go ahead and take care of this loser." He paused. "Wait, who are the Reds playing?"

"Not relevant," Velma said, glowering at her camera man. "If we want to get our show back on the air, we have to catch a ghost. And I think this is perfect for us. It's a good way to get our feet wet."

"Jeepers!" Daphne said as she grabbed Rhett's hand in excitement. "Do you all know what this means?"

"Reah!" Scooby said. "Rit reans rour rating rim!"

Daphne looked confused for a second and looked at her hand in Rhett's. "Not that! I meant what we're getting ready to do?"

"Whatcha mean, Daph?" Shaggy asked.

"I mean it's time for Mystery Inc to ride again!" She was nearly jumping in the air at the thought. "It just feels right, doesn't it?"

Shaggy didn't agree with that. There was open hostility between Fred and Rhett. Old wounds were not going to heal easily. And adding Daphne and her affections to the list was only going to bring more danger to the group. And that didn't even add in the fact that Shaggy, himself, felt guilty too. He was carrying the burden of a secret and he didn't want the gang to know what he had been up to while they were gone. They needed him to be the Shaggy of old and that was what he was going to give them.

Velma also had some serious doubts about what was going on with the gang. She had been waiting for Fred to jump forward and take the lead, but that hadn't happened yet and all the signs pointed to him not doing that. Adding in the unease that was developing with Ned, it all added up to her solving a mystery that she would rather let sit. But someone had to take over, that much was clear.

Rhett wasn't sold on anything that was going on. He had known most of these guys for years and honestly didn't have much to do with any of them. Honestly, the only reason he even agreed to this whole thing was because of Daphne. She believed in him. She saw that he had changed. She was the reason that he was willing to give these other losers a chance. And that's why he was the one who had to speak up. "So, what do we do now?"

"Let's go gang!" Velma said, waving her arms towards the Mystery Machine, stepping front of Fred.

Then:

"And that's when the ghost will come around the corner and we'll trap him!" The man in the black suit with the red cape said, "And that's when our new member of the team will come into play!"

"Happy to be of service, Vinny ol' pal!" A young boy with wild black hair and a yellow hoody stated. He reached up to slap the man with the cape in the back. "Just like old times!"

"Flim Flam," the man in the cape said, "Please return my wallet."

Flim Flam smiled broadly and returned the wallet to the caped man. "Sorry, Vinny! Old habits!" He smirked at Scrappy Doo and winked at him.

Scooby and Shaggy exchanged glances. They barely knew this Flim Flam, but they didn't like the way that he was gravitating towards Scrappy. They could smell trouble coming from a mile away. Not that there was only one reason for them to be concerned. "Like, we don't fake ghosts, man."

Daphne nodded with agreement. "We find them and then unmask them. We solve real crimes, we don't do pretend to do it, Mr. Van Ghoul"

"Well, of course not," Vincent Van Ghoul said, "But we need to do it this one time for the promo tape. The Thirteen Ghosts of Vincent Van Ghoul will be a huge hit! And Mystery Inc will be able to ride it to their greater glory!"

Daphne rolled her eyes and whispered to Shaggy, "More like his glory. He's just trying to keep his star power alive. No one casts him in movies anymore."

"Like, they totally should! Vincent Van Ghoul movies are like the best!"

"Reah! The rest!" Scooby added.

Daphne sighed. "Still, I'm not sure what we're going to do. I wish Fred and Velma were here. They would be able to help us with this."

"Yeah, but we'll be able to figure this out."

The three senior members of Mystery Inc turned back to where Flim Flam was putting Scrappy on his shoulders. "Hey, Uncle Scooby! Look how tall I am!" The two kids laughed.

Shaggy sighed. "You know, Mr. Van Ghoul, we're probably gonna regret this, but we're in!"

Vincent Van Ghoul smacked Shaggy on the back. "Norville, my boy, I just knew that you would! Did I mention that I'm partially psychic?"

"Really, Mr. Van Ghoul," Scrappy asked excitedly, "Which part?"

Daphne shook her head. "I think what's important now is that we figure out what we're going to do."

"Well, young lady, I have figured out how this little group of your's will work out. See, I think I know your group dynamic. You need someone to set traps. And that's where our young friend comes into play."

"What can I do ya for, neighbor?" Flim Flam said with a wide grin.

"I am actually very solid at putting together clues. But I do have to admit that I don't know who's going to lead this. I know how we can use the TV show angle. But I don't have the experience in catching ghosts."

"Zoinks!" Shaggy said, "Who's going to be the leader?" At that, each person turned and looked directly at Daphne.

Now:

"Like, I don't know about you all, but I am totally at a loss," Shaggy said as he leaned against the Mystery Machine, a hot dog in his hand. "There's only two farmers left in this area, and they both seem super spooky to me. I think they did it together."

"Why did you have the wife make you hot dogs?" Ned asked.

"Like, she asked if there was anything she could get us."

"I think she was just being polite." He shook his head. "But I do have to agree, they both seem like solid suspects. I just don't understand why."

"Oh, that's easy," Daphne said. "It's a real estate scam."

"Really?"

Daphne nodded. "Yeah, it seems to be mostly what we deal with. Someone has dressed up like a ghost to chase people off their land. Either there is some hidden mineral under the ground, or they want the land for some other reason; amusement park, buried treasure, something like that."

Ned looked over at Rhett, who just shrugged. "And this is normal for you all?" Ned looked at each of the others. They all nodded. "How do you even live?"

"Dude, I've been wondering that for years, man," Shaggy said.

Ned shook his head. "What have I gotten myself into? What's our next plan?"

"Well," Velma said, "There is a lot of ground for us to cover. There's Deacon Farm, there's Walker Farm, and then there is all the other farms around here that's been left abandoned. On the plus side, we're in better shape than we used to be. We have more members."

Fred nodded. "Velma's right. We should…'

"Split up and look for clues," Velma finished for him. "Shag, you and Scooby go to Deacon Farm."

"Rot it!"

"Fred and Ned can take a look at the abandoned farms."

"Sure thing, Boss Lady," Ned said.

"And Daphne, Rhett and I will start to look around Walker Farm for clues. If you find anything that the rest of us needs to know about, just give us a call. Everyone's phone fully charged?"

They all nodded their agreement, except for Fred. He seemed to look a bit confused.

"Is there a problem, Fred?" Velma asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Uhmm…no, I guess not." He shook his head. "I think I just have some cobwebs to get out. It's been a long while since I've done something like this. I'm afraid I'm just rusty."

Velma smiled. "I understand that. I remember when Ned and I started our show up, we ran into a few issues on our end. But we were able to make it work. You'll love Ned, he has been able to make all the traps on our show. The two of you ought to get along well!"

Fred nodded weakly. "Thanks."

"So, I guess it's time to say it," Daphne said.

"Let's split up and look for clues!" Velma said with a smile. She didn't see a the confused look on Fred's face.

Then:

Scooby Doo had enough. Vincent Van Ghoul's changes had just become too much for him to bear, so he did the only thing that he could think of, he quit the show. His friends tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't have it. He was done.

Van Ghoul knew what needed to be done, they needed to get a replacement for the dog. Flim Flam put out a call for any and all talking dogs. Several showed up for the auditions, but Flim Flam saw real star potential in only one of them. That is how the large sheepdog named Bernie Gumsher became the newest member of Mystery Inc.

The first mission went the way that most of them generally did. Bernie didn't help as much as Flim Flam had hoped, but it didn't matter, the preteen con artist knew that when it mattered the most, the new canine would come to the rescue, his brown hair blowing in the wind. It would be like something out of an action movie.

They were trying to capture a ghost named Time Slime. He seemed to have the ability to see the future and know what the gang was going to do before they did it. But Vincent Van Ghoul thought he had a full proof plan. Shaggy and Scrappy were going to lead Time Slime down the path, and then Daphne and Flim Flam were going to let the rope go. This was going to lead to Bernie grabbing the rope and tying Time Slime up. It was perfect.

Time Slime was a green, normal sized ghost, but he didn't have any face. Shaggy couldn't have told you what was particularly slimey about him, but it didn't actually matter, the fact that this dude could like see through time was more than enough to make him scary.

Scrappy and Shaggy had turned the corner, talking too loudly, which was normal for them to draw out the bad guys. "I saw you coming, days ago," Time Slime said, jumping out of the shadows. He had a staff in his hand that had a spinner on it with four different options, 'freeze', 'past' 'present' and 'future.' At that moment, it was stuck to 'present' but Shaggy wasn't concerned with that. He was concerned with the fact that it was swinging at his head. Shaggy yelled out, "Zoinks!" and started to run.

"Let me at him! I'll splat him good!" Scrappy was actually going to try to fight the monster. Shaggy couldn't believe it. Didn't he understand that his job was to run? He certainly didn't take after his uncle. Shaggy reached back and grabbed him, running like a wild man.

However, Shaggy had missed his mark. That wasn't a huge surprise. But Flim Flam stopped in his tracks and ran off to point to Shaggy where he needed to be. Daphne still managed to pull the rope, but when Time Slime hit it, it didn't trip him up. All it did was cause Daphne to tumble away. She crashed right into Shaggy.

Bernie had managed to miss all of that. He had also managed to miss what he was supposed to do during the debriefing. He had been sleeping. When he woke up, he was vaguely aware of someone yelling at him about the rope. So he did what he thought was correct, he grabbed the rope and pulled.

This caused Daphne to fall into Shaggy. Bernie kept running around them, pulling the ropes tighter. This lead to them both falling over, with Daphne landing on top of Shaggy, but they didn't seem to mind and the two held a lingering gaze that did not escape the notice of Flim Flam, but Scrappy didn't see it.

"I think that's clear. We need Uncle Scooby back!"

Now:

Fred Jones was not happy with the situation that he found himself in. It was pretty clear that the entire situation was going out of his control. He didn't realize how much he liked being the leader when he was younger. And now he felt like he was on the B Team. He hated saying that as well. It made him feel like a bad person.

"Something wrong, chum?" Ned asked, swinging his camera around from spot to spot in order to get as much of scenic views in the shots as he could. Adding in some scene shots would've been great for opening shots and closing shots.

"Noticed that, did you?" Fred said sullenly.

Ned grinned. "It's my super power, really."

"You have a super power?" Fred's words came out hollow and sad. "It must be nice to have one."

"It's my training," Ned said. He pointed to the camera. "See this? It can see everything."

Fred nodded slowly. "I see." Fred paused. "You know, I don't know anything about you. Why don't you tell me about yourself?"

"Not much to tell, really. Got into a good college, slowly lost my grip on what I was supposed to be doing there, and got myself kicked out."

"And in your mind, that's not much to tell?" Fred raised an eyebrow.

Ned shrugged. "Do you disagree?"

Fred shook his head. "Guess we need to agree to disagree."

Ned paused with his camera. "Huh."

Fred raised an eyebrow. "You got something?"

Ned motioned towards the fence. "Maybe. How long has this farm been abandoned."

Fred closed his eyes. "I'm not sure. Several months. Why?"

"I think this may be a clue."

Fred knelt down next to the fence and grabbed a piece of blue fabric that had been stuck on it. "It's a piece of cloth. But it looks like it's from the ghost's outfit. That means it must've been around here. But why would the ghost want to be around a farm that's abandoned." He pulled out his phone. "I better call Velma and the others and let her know what's up." He paused and looked up at Ned. "Good catch, by the way."

"Don't miss a thing," Ned said as he tapped the camera.

"So it sees everything, huh?" Fred asked.

"That's what I said, isn't it?"

"But what about what's behind the camera?"

Ned grinned. "That's easy." He simply turned backwards and showed the scene that was behind him. "All you have to do is turn around?"

"But that still doesn't show what is behind the camera, does it? That just shows what is in front from a different angle. It never shows what's behind the camera."

"Then what's behind the camera?" Ned asked.

"You are," Fred said simply. "If the camera sees everything and you know everything because the camera sees it. It doesn't see you. Do you really know who you are?"

Ned paused. He didn't know how to answer that.

Then:

She was the replacement Daphne. She couldn't help but feeling that way. There wasn't any chance that she was going to be on the team if Daphne hadn't up and quit for, whatever reason that she decided to quit. But that didn't matter to Marcie Fleach. She had what she wanted, friends.

She had spent her entire life growing up without any friends. It was a side effect of how she lived her life. Her father owned one of the local theme parks, Creepy Spooky Terror Land, and he used the recycled water that they used to cook the hot dogs to use in the showers for his family. This unfortunate trend of his lead to his daughter getting a rather miserable nickname that lead to her being a pariah at the school. Thankfully, her new friends would never call her by…

"Hot Dog Water!" Fred called out. "I think we've found a clue! What do you think?"

She shuddered. She knew it would take a while for people to get over their habits. And Fred would start to call her by her name, she knew that.

"Fred," Velma said, "Her name is Marcie. Please don't call her by that insulting nickname."

Marcie smiled at Velma. Velma had been Marcie's rival for her entire life, and Marcie was tired of losing to her in the science fair year after year, but familiarity lead to respect. In fact, Marcie was pretty certain that the only reason that she was on the team was because Velma pitched for her. "Thank you."

Shaggy instinctively grabbed Velma's hand. "Like, I think we should go see what Fred's found."

Marcie could tell that the male members of Mystery Inc didn't like her. She noticed that Fred stopped treating her the same way once she joined the team. She had never known him to go out of the way to call her by that name. But now he did all the time, and she wasn't sure why.

Shaggy was certainly uncouth before, but never anything like this. If Marcie didn't know any better, she would say that he was threatened. But that couldn't have been the answer , when he was scared, he would run, not get angry. But something was clearly up with the two of them. Her only real ally was Velma. Scooby Doo was polite enough, but he was just a dog.

Marcie knelt next to Fred and raised an eyebrow. "That's odd. That's helium."

"So that explains why the ghost was able to fly," Velma said as she knelt next to her, their shoulder brushing against each other. "And the container, it could've only came from one place."

"But that has to mean that there was more than one ghost. There's no way that he was able to get all of this done himself."

"Wait, who wasn't able to get what done himself?" Shaggy looked over at Scooby. "Like, did that make any sense to you?"

"Rot rat rall," the dog said.

"It's actually really simple," Marcie said, "Anyone should be able to figure it out."

"Zoinks! We're not all as smart as you."

She turned to Velma. "What do you see in him?"

Now:

They had caught up with the rest of the gang, and they all traded what they had found, but Fred was still confused. He understood that the ghost was clearly a person, but he had no idea which person it may have been. Normally, Velma and him were on the same page, but this time, he didn't know who the person behind the mask was, why they were doing it or why Velma didn't explain it. Honestly, he felt like Shaggy and Scooby.

"Well, I suppose it's trap time," Fred said with a grin. He may not have any idea what else was going on, but it still clear that he was able to play a role in the group. No one could take that from him.

"Well, actually," Velma stated, "See, Ned and I have done this so many times, that he already has a plan." She paused. "Is that OK?"

Fred nodded slowly and an odd smile slipped over his face. "Why wouldn't it be? I'm just happy that the gang is back together and that the new guy is finding his place in it!"

Velma smiled. "I knew you would be OK with this! I'm certain that you'll see how great Ned is!"

Ned looked uneasy but he nodded towards a nearby barn. "So I've set up some stuff over here, if you all want to see what the game plan is."

Velma walked with Ned to the barn, their conversation managed to disappear as they walked away. Daphne was the next one to go by. "Isn't this great, Fred? It's just like old times!"

"Yeah," Fred muttered, "Just like old times."

Rhett was next to walk by Fred. Fred didn't trust him. He never did. He may go by his real name now, but he wasn't going to forget what Rhett had been. And Rhett clearly saw Fred as a rival. But Rhett's words stung as he walked by. The truth often did. "Gee, Jones," he said with a sneer, "looks like you were replaced. Velma's in charge, Ned is making traps. What do you bring to the table?"

Fred felt a hand hit him on the back. "Like, don't let this get to you, man." Shaggy had a smile on his face. "There was always going to be some growing pains. But I know you, you'll totally get over this hump. Like, I believe in you. And you and Ned are going to be the best trappers ever!"

Fred closed his eyes. It didn't matter who was behind the mask. It didn't matter who caught him. None of it mattered, really. All that mattered was that some bad guy was stopped in his evil plans. That was the only thing that mattered. Fred Jones knew that. But that couldn't stop the hurt he felt right now.

Later, after the trap was successful in a way that his was so rarely done in, and the cops were called, Fred Jones found himself behind the wheel of the Mystery Machine, the rest of the gang piled in next to and behind him, when the strangest thing happened. The radio came on.

There wasn't anything odd about that, really. But the voice on the other end wasn't what any of them expected. "Good evening, Mystery Incorporated."

"Jinkies!" Velma said. "Did the radio just…?"

She didn't finish her thought, as the voice said, "I did, Velma Dinkley."

"Can you hear us?" Rhett asked.

"I can."

"Like, how is that even possible?" Shaggy asked confused.

"It doesn't really matter. All that matters is my message."

"You'll forgive us if we don't trust a mysterious voice on the radio without any indication who you are." Daphne's words were full of confusion.

"I suppose I owe you that much," the voice said, "You may call me, Mister F."


	6. Episode 6: From Red to Rhett

Then:

There was a young boy playing in the sandbox with his dog. "Like, we're going to dig for buried treasure!"

He was young, maybe five years old, but he had already met the friends that he would have for the next twenty years. Along with him was the dog that was going to become closer than one person could be. They were able to understand each other on levels that very few people ever could. "Or ray be ruried rizza!" The dog said happily.

Red Herring, not yet going by the name Rhett, was waiting. He had a mask that he got from his aunt. It was red, and had pointed ears that went very far over his head. Red was large for his age, but the mask seemed to take up most of his body. It was meant for a full grown man, and his aunt told him that it was special, that it meant something to the African tribe that she had bought it from. It wasn't a toy, it was only supposed to be used to study. That it was special. That it mattered.

Red didn't care about any of that, he only cared about the fact that it was scary. He knew that he would be able to scare Rogers and his stupid dog. All he had wanted was a potato chip. They didn't have to eat the entire bag. They could've shared. But now it was too late. He just had to wait for the right time.

"Look out for mole men!" Fred Jones warned his friends. Fred's uncle ran the National Exaggerator. Red didn't know what that magazine was, but his aunt had told him that it was a trash magazine and only idiots believed in it. Obviously this Jones kid was stupid. But he had given Red a perfect opportunity as he started to make a sand castle.

Red leaped out, his mask was slipping slightly, but he was very impressed to get on the see saw. When he landed, the other end shot into the air and Red screamed "OOGA BOOGA!" He wasn't sure what he wanted to say, and said the first thing that he could think of.

It went exactly the way that Red had wanted it to go. Fred looked terrified. He really believed that Red was a monster. And Rogers and that stupid dog also did the same. Shaggy's eyes were so wide that Red thought they were going to take over his entire face until there was no longer anything but eyes.

But it was the girls who Red paid attention to the most. Daphne looked shocked from the bench that she was sitting at. She didn't want to get into the sand box, because she said it would get her dress dirty. Red wasn't sure about her, she seemed to be friends with these guys, but she didn't really fit in well.

Velma was sitting under a tree, a book in her hands. It wasn't uncommon, but Red was pretty sure that book didn't even have pictures. He couldn't believe that they even made books like that. He noticed that she didn't seem scared but more confused. It was like she was studying him.

But it was Scooby that made the big move that ruined his plans. Scooby jumped into the air, landing on the other end of the see saw. Red lost his balance and fell, face first into the sand castle that Fred was making, his mask falling to the ground next to him.

"I knew it was Red Herring!" Fred said as he pointed to where Red's feet were kicking, attempting to get out of the sand castle.

"That's not very funny!" Red said as tried to climb out of his predicament, his feet slipping out from under him.

Now:

The Mystery Machine had pulled into the nearest rest stop and the gang piled out of it without saying a word. Shaggy and Scooby went off and picked out various things at the vending machine. The other five looked around at each other. "What do you all think?" Daphne asked. She looked at each person in turn.

"I don't trust him," Fred said softly, "He hacked the Mystery Machine. I'm not even sure how that's possible. I'm going to have to give it a good once over to figure out what's going on with it."

Velma nodded at his thoughts. "For sure. I'm just more concerned with the information he gave. Have any of you actually researched the Charles Mill Lake Monster?"

Rhett turned to look at Ned. "Y'know, I was just looking at some light reading last night, and I decided that obviously, I would read about monsters around the world. Y'know, for funsies."

"Sarcasm has been noted," Velma said bitterly. She missed the days when she was the only member of the team who had any sarcasm. "Anyone else?"

"I think it's safe to say that you are the only person on this team that has any knowledge of the issue," Fred said slowly.

"Well, I think we need to research it all before we make any rash moves, but I can say that Mr. F is correct, this is a situation that seems to be right up our alley. I think we need to investigate it."

Daphne bit her lip. "Jeepers, I'm not sure how I feel about this. I mean, we've always managed to find our own missions. I don't think that I want to have someone lead us around."

Fred looked over at Ned. "You've been quiet. What do you think?"

Ned shrugged. "I'm here to do what the boss says." He nodded towards Velma. "Her word is law."

Rhett snickered. "Now that's pretty funny." He turned to Daphne. "I'm with you. I don't think that we follow what Mr. F says blindly. He's already broken into our van, I don't want to run the risk of what else he can do."

Fred sighed. "I hate to say it, but I'm with Rhett and Daphne. This man has already broken through to us once before, I'm not sure we can count on him."

Velma smirked. "Well, that's no surprise. I guess it's up to Shaggy and Scooby."

"Like, what's up to us?" The two had returned with their arms full of random vending machine cuisine. "Is it for dinner? Because, like, we saw an all you can eat buffet near here!"

"Rall rou ran reat!" Scooby said with happiness.

"We were talking about what to do about Mr. F," Daphne said.

"Oh, like that's easy. Scoob and I already talked it over."

"Well, that showed a lot of foresight," Fred said, "I'm interested to see what you all decided."

"Well, we're bothered. Like, this Mr. F is a dude who can get past all of us. It's an issue. But, like, he's got some good ideas." Shaggy gave a half hearted shrug. "Like we've decided that we're going to vote with Velma. Whatever she says."

Rhett muttered softly, "That's not very funny."

Then:

Red had spent the next few years menacing the group that was now known as the Scooby Doo Detective Agency, but he felt like he was missing something. It took him a while to realize that he didn't have any friends, but when he knew it, it became that much harder on him. And he spent more time trying to ruin the days of the other kids in his neighborhood.

These actions lead to him acting out more and more in a vain attempt to try find acceptance. It all lead to one moment that may have changed his entire life. "I still say that it's Red Herring!"

"Like, no way, man," Shaggy said, "Not even Red would be that rude."

Daphne crossed her arms. "I know you just think that your sister's rattle just went missing, but that just simply isn't true." She turned to look at Velma. "Can you back me up on this?"

"Indubitably." Velma reached into her backpack and pulled out a notepad. She started to write something on it before she showed it to the rest of them. It was a series of numbers and letters. "If you look at my calculations this proves that only one person could've had a chance to not only grab the rattle but the desire to do so." She turned and pointed directly at…"Red Herring!"

Red shrugged. "You can use all the fancy math you want, but that doesn't mean that I did anything."

Daphne sighed. "That's right. We can't prove anything."

"I bet he teamed up with the mole men!" Fred pointed excitedly towards Red. "And then he was with Dracula! That's how they managed to break into Shaggy's house and steal Sugie's rattle!"

"Fred, please be serious. I think you may be right about who took the rattle, but Dracula? Get real."

Shaggy shook his head. "Like, no way. That's too mean, even for Red!"

Velma sighed. "The math doesn't lie. He did it."

"I just don't understand why he would," Daphne said.

"Red Herring did it! I know that he did!" Fred pointed wildly at Red.

"Ha! Yeah, I took it! And the best part is that you dweebs can't do anything to stop me!" Red smiled brightly as he held the rattle high into the air.

"Is that true, Rhett?" A woman's voice asked from the shadows.

"Aunt Hedda!"

"Did you really take the baby's rattle?"

"Well, yes, but…

Hedda held her hand up. "I don't care. There is nothing that you can say that will possibly make this one OK."

Red shook his head. "Aunt Hedda, it's not like that. They had it coming! They are the ones who are mean to me!"

Hedda sighed. "After your parents died, I took you in. I thought I was doing right by you, but I don't know what else I can do for you." She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. "The only thing that I can do is to send you to the Calloway Military Academy. Pack your bags, you leave in the morning."

"That's not very funny," Red said in frustration.

Now:

Ned positioned the camera and smiled at Velma. While she spent her free time in the library and going through articles online, the rest of the gang had been doing whatever seemed best for them. But that didn't matter. They all knew that right now, the star was Velma. "We're ready to roll whenever you are."

Velma nodded and swallowed the lump that had developed in her throat. She was always nervous when the camera came on, but with all of her friends watching, it made her feel like she was little again and too shy to speak. But she knew that they were all counting on her to give the proper explanation. She took one deep breath and began her spiel.

"On March, 28th 1959, three young men were driving down a road one dark night, when suddenly, they got a flat tire! As they got out to change it, just off of Ruggles Road they witnessed something that they wouldn't have ever expected. Out of the swampy shores of Charles Lake Reservoir, a seven foot tall being rose from the black water."

Velma seemed to become spooked as she spoke. "The boys became frozen in fear as the figure towered over them. He was armless with luminous green eyes and large, webbed feet."

She motioned towards the lake that was behind her, the wind was blowing through her hair. "When the police showed up they saw a series of tracks that resembled the footgear word by skin divers."

She walked over to the shores. "Then in 1963, it was seen again. Now standing here on the shores of Charles Mill Lake, I can safely say that this seems like a good fit for any would be creature from the Black Lagoon."

"Speaking of black, this lake did not exist until 1935, when the Mill Lake Reservoir was constructed by damming the Black Fork of the Mohican River. It was known for it's catfish population and became a popular tourist spot, not too far away from Lovers Lane. It is believed that the damming of the river lead to the Charles Mill Lake Monster was forced from it's ancient home to the world around it. At 31 feet deep, and with the murky, black waters, it would be almost impossible to see anything there."

She stared deep into the lake. "And lately, there have been other sightings of the monster. We are here to investigate it."

"And cut!" Ned yelled as he grinned happily.

Velma ran over and proceeded to throw up into the lake.

"I am not getting in that lake," Daphne said turning her head.

"Like, is she OK?"

Ned nodded slowly. "Yep. This is normal for her. See, she will always vomit after we do the taping. It's what she does best."

"I'm sure she'd rather you say that she had a better quality than that," Fred said, "But hey, you've spent the last few years with her. Maybe that is what she does. Now it's time for us to do what we do best."

"Figure out the truth behind this monster!" Daphne exclaimed happily.

"Like, this monster could be anything."

"I know who the monster is," Fred said dramatically, "It's Red Herring!"

Rhett rolled his eyes. "That's not very funny."

Then:

Red Herring knew everything. Of course he did, he was a punk kid. It's what punk kids did the best. But now his entire life was upside down. Where he was from, he was the big man and people were afraid of him. But now, he was at the Calloway Military Academy and he was not the big man. In fact, he was fresh meat.

Colonel Calloway was glaring at him. Red hadn't said anything since he got there and Calloway managed to do the same. Neither of them was saying a word, but Calloway stared at him with pure evil intentions. Red squirmed slightly and he looked down. Calloway cracked his first smile. "I win," he said simply.

Calloway was a thin man with a small mustache that was pencil thin. When he grinned, it seemed to make his mouth stretch up to his eyes and sickened Red in ways that he wasn't ready for. "I'm not sure I know what you win."

"The battle of the wills, lad." Calloway leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "You see, when I get a new cadet, I stare them right in the eyes until one of us turns away. You turned away, that means you are weak. I am strong. I am in charge, do you understand me?"

Red did not. "I do, sir." Red was angry. He had no idea how long that he was going to be here, but when he got out, he knew that he was going to get revenge on those dweebs from the newly named Mystery Inc.

"Believe it or not, son, I am not the enemy." Calloway stood and walked towards the window. "Do you know why you are here?"

"I stole a baby's rattle."

Calloway shook his head. "You can't believe that one stupid mistake would land you in a place like this, do you? It's not just that. You had an entire life of mistakes. You just found the straw that broke the camel's back. You found your event horizon, your point of no return." Calloway smiled again. "And that leaves me in an awkward spot. My job is to bring you back. Somehow, I will make a man out of you."

Red was concerned that he was going to start to sing, but didn't say anything more. His aunt had made it perfectly clear where the next step for him went; juvie.

Calloway turned to look at Red, and for the first time, something that seemed like tenderness came across in it. "I am not here to ruin you. I'm not here to punish you. I am here to make sure you have guidance in your life. There will come a point in time that you will hate me. But most of the boys who come here start to respect me. I hope that will be you as well."

"Yes sir."

Calloway shook his head. "You don't believe me. That's fine, very few people do when they get here. I assure that I have the best intentions for you. Which will make my next order sound odd."

"Next order, sir?"

"Cadet Herring," Calloway said as the wind started to pick up. "In order to join this group, you must follow orders. And my orders are for you to do laps."

"It's going to rain, sir," Red said.

"Yes it is."

Red sighed as the rain started to pour down on him. He had no choice, he had to start running laps. "That's not very funny," he said to no one in particular.

Now:

The doors to Sam's Diner flew open and Shaggy and Scooby raced inside. They found a seat in a booth and picked up a menu. They weren't really sure what Velma had said after she said, "Go into the diner," but they were pretty sure that it involved getting food. What else would be the purpose of going into a diner?

They found this answer later as the rest of the gang came in and sat next to them. "Well, folks, welcome to Sam's Diner! My name is Susanna, I'll be your waitress. What brings ya'll around these parts?"

"Rie!" Scooby said. He pointed at the menu at the apple pie on the front. "We rove rie!"

Fred smiled. "Well, that's why they are here. We're here for something else. What can you tell us about the Charles Mill Lake Monster?"

Susanna rolled her eyes. "Shoulda known. It's all anyone wants to talk about lately." She looked over at Shaggy. "You ready to order, hon?"

"Like, am I?" Shaggy was basically drooling over the menu. "I'll take page three and four." He paused and looked at Scooby. "I'm not that hungry, so just page six too?"

"Reah, ronly rix!"

Susanna waited to see if they were joking. It became increasingly obvious to her that they were not. "Big eaters, huh?"

"The biggest," Velma said. She glimpsed around the diner. There were posters of various sports cars everywhere. She couldn't turn her head without seeing some version of a classic car or another. "Big on cars, are you?"

Susanna shook her head. "Can't say that I am. Heck, I don't even own one myself." She glanced out the window. "But if I drove around some monster like that," she motioned towards the Mystery Machine, "I would pretend that I didn't know a thing about cars anyway."

Fred bristled at her statement. "The Mystery Machine is a great vehicle. She's gotten us all over."

"I'm sure she looked great in the 60s, darling."

Fred grumbled an order that Susanna couldn't quite make out. She decided to just bring him whatever she could bring up. "And the rest of you kids?"

Ned grinned at Fred's frustration. "Just a coffee, please. Black."

Susanna nodded. "But that monster huh? It's an odd one. Like a critter that walks on two legs and has no arms. That's just weird."

Rhett nodded as Daphne ordered a salad. "I'd say. I'll take a hamburger. Well done."

Velma grinned. "But you don't know anything about it at all, huh?" She looked at the menu. "Bacon and eggs please."

Susanna shook her head. "Nope." She poked a thumb towards the chef. "But if you wanna know about it, you need to talk to the owner of this place."

"That's Sam?" Ned asked.

"Naw, his name is Charlie." There was a pause as everyone waited for the waitress to say that she was joking, but it became more and more obvious that she wasn't joking.

"That's not very funny," Rhett muttered.

Then:

Years had passed by and Red had managed to work his way up the ranks at Calloway Military Academy. Now he was the second in command and proud of what he had managed to accomplish, beating the girls from Miss Grimwood's Finishing School for Girls for ten straight years in their annual volleyball game. They had a friendly rivalry that Red was very serious about. Right now, he was at a small get together at a local restaurant with Colonel Calloway and Miss Grimwood. They were waiting on the new gym teacher from Miss Grimwood's to come in. He hadn't met them yet, but he understood that they had gotten a good recommendation.

The doors flung open and a man with two dogs entered. Red knew instantly who it was. How could he not? How many times had he seen that man? Granted, it had been years but he was never going to forget this man. "Shaggy Rogers?"

Shaggy shuddered when he walked in. "Like, Zoinks!" He jumped into the air and landed on the table. "It's Red Herring! Please don't hurt us!"

Scooby jumped on the table behind Shaggy and started to shiver. The other dog, no more than a puppy really, jumped on the table in front of Shaggy and raised his paws in the air, making a fist. "This is the guy that bothered ya when you were kids?" He waved a paw towards Red. "Put 'em up, put 'em up! I'll splat ya!"

Red laughed and walked over to them. "Relax guys," he said as he pet Scrappy on the head, "I'm not here to be the guy I used to be." He paused. He had given a lot of thought lately to the change in him, but he still felt as if he was missing something. And then seeing how Shaggy reacted brought it home, Red Herring would always be the bully. "But I think I wanna go by my real name. Call me Rhett."

Shaggy looked back at Scooby. "Like, what do you think?"

"Rot sure."

Rhett held his hands up. "I know I was a jerk. Let me make it up to you all. I know it's not much, but I'll offer to buy your dinner tonight."

Shaggy and Scooby leapt into the air again, this time in pure joy. "You've got it, man!"

The two ran over to the waitress and Rhett looked down at Scrappy. "I'm going to regret this, aren't I?"

"I don't see how you won't."

Rhett grinned as he went over to Shaggy and heard him order the entire menu. Twice. "Hey, buddy. What have you been up to?"

"Like, the rest of the gang went on to college, but the education life isn't exactly Scoob and my thing, y'know?"

Rhett rolled his eyes. "I mean, that makes sense. You all did go into education and all."

"We just tried to find any jobs we could. Our friend, Vincent Van Ghoul, put us onto this lead."

"Oh yeah, I saw that. You and Daphne had that reality show." Rhett smiled. "Let's be real though. You hooked up with a buncha losers. We've beaten you every year since I've been here."

Shaggy smirked. "Y'know, we're gonna win this game!"

"You all will beat us?" Rhett shook his head. "That's not very funny."

Now:

Fred and Velma got up from the table and walked over to where Charlie was flipping some pancakes. He was a middle aged man with long, greasy black hair. It should've been in a hair net, but it wasn't. Velma suddenly didn't want her eggs. "So you are the owner of this place?"

"Yep."

Fred asked the question that had been on his mind. "Why is this called Sam's if your name is Charlie?"

"Sam was a former owner."

"So you bought it from Sam?" Velma asked.

"Nope."

Velma turned to Fred. "I'm out. You are going to have to finish this up. I can't even."

Fred snickered slightly as Velma walked away, shaking her head in disgust. "Susanna was telling us that if we wanted to know about the Charles Mill Lake Monster, we ought to talk to you. Why is that?"

Charlie wiped his nose with his sleeve. "Reckon cause my dad was one of those folk who saw him the first time. And I think I was the first one to see him come back this time."

"And how many times has he been seen since then?"

"Dozen or more. Nearly always at night. Folks are starting to get really scared. I don't think the town can handle things like this too much longer."

Fred nodded slowly before he turned to a picture of a car on the wall. "Is that a mustang?"

Charlie's demeanor seemed to change at these words. "Sure is!" He motioned to the poster. "See, that's a 1968 Shelby Mustang. It has 360 horsepower with 440 torques, she is a real beauty. I wish I could have one of those." He motioned around the greasy kitchen, "But I don't see that happening." He turned to look Fred in the eyes. "You a car guy?"

"Sure am! Back home, I have my own garage. I'm out with my friends, but I still call into the garage every day to make sure things are going well."

"Whatcha driving?"

Fred motioned towards the window where the Mystery Machine was easily seen. "Driving that."

Charlie didn't say anything for a few moments. It was clear he was trying to find the proper words. "That's…some car."

Fred grinned broadly and slapped Charlie on the back. "Yes it is! You want to go for a spin in it later?"

"I would, but I need to get back to my cooking. Thanks for talking though!"

Fred came back to the table, where the waitress was struggling to pick up multiple plates. The rest of the gang still had food on their plates, but Shaggy and Scooby were gone. " Where did they go?"

"Oh, they decided they wanted to go for a walk after all the food they ate," Ned said. "I felt like a watched a nature documentary the way they ate."

"I've seen them eat like that before. That's not very funny," Rhett said.

Then:

Shaggy and Rhett had grown closer of the years, and Rhett even managed to take part of a race with him. In fact, Rhett had dinner with him, the dogs and his girlfriend numerous times. There was something that Shaggy had said numerous times, that he should come back to Crystal Cove and see what his old town was like.

Rhett hadn't been back in this town in years, every since his aunt moved away. There wasn't anything there for him, but Shaggy insisted. Which was funny, as Shaggy hadn't been back in a while himself.

Crystal Cover seemed different somehow, like it was moving on without him. Of course it was, it was a town, and towns didn't stay the same forever.

Things seemed to be darker and more crowded. He was walking on campus, and briefly felt anger towards the rest of the people his age who were enjoying the time. It was a cool, spring day and he never realized that he missed being around people his own age. The only person he was with was Shaggy, his girlfriend, Colonel Calloway and the students at his school. It was lonely, and he was only now putting that together. But what was he going to do, go up to the nearest person and introduce himself? It seemed like an odd way to go.

He was getting odd stares as he walked around, but that was probably because while he was at Darrow University, he was looking around like he was a tourist. Or maybe a lost freshman, but this would've been too late for a freshman to be this confused. This was a mistake.

He turned to the side of a building and stood in shadows. He was breathing heavily, not from exertion but instead from nerves. He hadn't been this nervous in a long while, not even when he met Vincent Van Ghoul. He wasn't sure what he was doing, or how he got talked into this. Why did he decide to go back to where he started from? It didn't matter, he had to remember his training. Observe what was around him, focus on that, and things would be better.

There was a red headed woman that was beautiful. Rhett couldn't remember the last time that he saw a woman who was that beautiful. She was the type of woman that Rhett would've asked out, if he had the nerve to do that sort of thing. He could go through live rounds, but the moment a woman was involved, he was done for.

The woman wasn't looking up from her phone. She seemed upset about something, and it was clear that her mind wasn't on her surroundings. Which meant that she didn't see the bus coming down at her.

Rhett sprung into action and leapt at the woman, knocking her down, but clear from the bus. He helped her to her feet. "Are you OK, miss?"

Rhett stared at the red headed woman he had just pulled out of the way of danger. It took him a few moments before he realized that he had seen her before. "Daphne Blake?"

"I'm sorry, I don't…" Daphne paused as a strange smile went across her face. "Red Herring?"

"I go by Rhett now."

Daphne brushed off her dress, trying to get the dirt off it. "God, I must look bad right now."

"You look bad?" Rhett shook his head with a smile. "That's not very funny."

Now:

Shaggy and Scooby was enjoying their post dinner, pre midnight snack prep meal, walk. It was a very normal thing for them, something they did the entire time that they were part of Mystery Inc and it was the one thing they kept doing all these years afterwards.

There was just one problem, it was getting dark. "Like, Scoob, do you know where the diner was?"

"Rext to the Rystery Rachine."

Shaggy shook his hand. He knew that the answer was correct, but it wasn't what he wanted to hear. However, all these years with Scooby meant that he knew exactly what the answer meant. "Like, I don't know either."

The two friends looked around in utter fear. They started to see a demon in every shadow, a ghost in every tree, a small, smiling beaver with every beaver they saw. Shaggy once had a series of nightmares about a smiling beaver and he never forgot it. "Hoot!"

Shaggy found his arms suddenly full as Scooby jumped into them. "Rhost!"

At that, Shaggy started to run as fast as he could. He ran off the road and dashed into the forest around them. In short time, he was hopelessly lost but he didn't even bother to stop, well, not until he managed to find the lake. "Like, I think we're safe now. No way that any ghost could follow us after that!"

The two collapsed on the beach, breathing heavily. They started to giggle and couldn't control themselves, breaking into a full on laugh. Eventually Shaggy reached up and grabbed a leg, pulling himself to his feet. "Like thanks for the help up, buddy."

"Relcome," Scooby said on the other side of Shaggy.

"Wait," Shaggy looked over at Scooby on his right. On his left, he was still holding on to the leg that he had used to move himself up into a standing position. "If you are over here, like, who's over there?" Shaggy closed his eyes, and moved his head to his left, muttering, "Please don't be a monster, please don't be a monster…" He opened his eyes and stared directly into a frog like creature with no arms. "Zoinks!"

Shaggy leapt into the air, his feet started to move in a windmill position before he ran off, leaving a dust form of himself behind. Scooby was very close behind him. The two of them didn't stop running until they crashed into Ned, knocking all three of them down.

"What is going on?" Ned asked, rubbing his head.

"Ronster!"

"Where?"

"Like, it was by the lake! It was a Lake Monster!"

Rhett helped Shaggy to his feet. "You alright, buddy?"

Shaggy nodded. "Yeah, but we're so afraid, we need to have a snack."

"Reah! A Rack!"

Fred rolled his eyes. He knew what time it was now. It was time for action, it was time for him to step into the roll that he was born to play. He was about to say something when suddenly, Velma stepped in front of him. "Only one thing to do," she said, "let's split up and search for clues!"

"That's not very funny," Fred muttered under his breath.


	7. Chapter 7: The Charles Mill Lake Monster

Then:

Fred was sitting at an empty booth, staring at the menu absently. He was just doing anything that he could in order to avoid looking up at the door. He didn't want to wait any longer. Thankfully, he didn't have to.

Shaggy had walked in and sat down opposite him. Shaggy was a bit confused, Fred had asked him to come here and only him. He had to find a way to leave Scooby Doo behind. "Like, I'm here, man."

Fred nodded slowly. "You are. I'm glad. I've been wondering about things. I was hoping you could help."

Shaggy raised an eyebrow. "Like, sure, man." He paused. "Are you sure you didn't mean to text Velma? Like, she's gotta be better suited about whatever it is you wanna talk about. Unless it's about eating." He paused. "Is it about eating? Because I could really go for something to eat right now."

Fred smiled. "I'll get you a meal." He held up his hand. "For like a normal person, Shaggy. Not for you." He ignored Shaggy's pout and went straight to his point. "But no, you are the perfect person for me to talk to about my problem."

Shaggy grinned. "Like, sure! I'm always happy to help a friend."

Fred sighed. He didn't know the best way to ask his question, so he decided to do it like you would pull off a band-aide, quickly. "How did you ask out Daphne?"

Shaggy was not ready for that question, but he looked at his friend's face. He wasn't going to disappoint him. "I didn't really. Like, we sorta just started dating." Shaggy picked up the menu. Picking just one thing to eat was going to be harder for him than he had expected it to. How could he choose, it was like picking between his children. That he planned to eat. It was probably nothing like that at all, honestly. "You like her, right?"

Fred nodded. "For as long as I can remember, honestly. If I asked her out for prom, would that make things weird between us?"

"Like, I don't know why it would. I mean, if you went to prom with her, I can't see why that would make it weird with the two of you."

"I meant us. Would it hurt our friendship?" Fred looked towards the waitresses arguing about who was going to have to be the one to help them. "It sounds stupid, but I don't want us to not be friends because of this."

"Like no way, man. Daphne and I are splitsville. Nothing's going to get that bridge built back up." Shaggy smiled. "Honestly, the two of you are some of my best friends. I couldn't be happier for you."

Fred grinned. "So, are you going to the basketball game?"

"Like, I don't know man, are you playing in it?"

"Naw, I'm a baseball player, remember?"

"One sport is basically the same as another to me." Shaggy grinned. "Except gymnastics. I'm the swingiest gymnasts in school ya know?"

"I know." Fred looked at Shaggy and grinned. "Y'know, you are a pretty cool guy."

"Dude, I totally know that." When the waitress came over, Shaggy grinned as he pointed to the meal that he wanted. "But you are a pretty cool cat yourself."

"Thanks." Fred didn't ask out Daphne for prom.

Now:

Fred was walking along the lake, his eyes cast down, looking for anything that may help him figure out what was going on. "You getting this?"

Ned was behind him, camera already up. He kept Fred in shot, but he was moving his own head around trying to figure out what was going on. "I am. You were right, it's not that hard to tell where Shaggy and Scooby were. They don't as much as walk through an area as they do destroy everything around it."

"They were scared."

"Isn't that like saying water is wet?"

Fred chuckled. "There is that. It's odd though, there is another set of footprints here. They were definitely being followed by someone else. Or something else."

Ned could tell that he didn't believe that last part, but Ned focused on the footprints. Fred was right, there were the footprints of Shaggy and Scooby but there was also ones that looked like..."Those are flippers."

"They are, but look at this." Fred pointed to the heel. "Do you see the pressure put here. If you notice, the pressure isn't the same at the end. There is matching pressure a little further towards the back of the foot. That tells me that this flipper isn't natural. These are the footprints of someone wearing a flipper for diving."

"You know a lot about that."

"I have followed a lot of footprints in my life. I think we need to go diving here. I think there is something hiding here."

"An interesting theory, but I don't think it's something that you ought to be doing."

The voice came from behind, and Ned whirled around, focusing the camera on the face of the local sheriff. "See, I figured something like this would happen. Over the last few weeks, reports have been coming in about some sorta swamp monster, and now all the weirdos are coming out. Most don't have cameras though."

"We're from a film crew," Ned said, "Ghosts Across America?"

"Heard of that show" The sheriff smiled. "Heard it got cancelled."

Fred muttered from the side of his mouth, "Well, he's not wrong."

"I'm Sheriff Cage. I don't want you boys in that lake. You are more than welcome to film among the banks and in the park, but the water is off limits."

"Why is that?" Ned asked.

Sheriff Cage pointed towards a sign by the edge that had a picture of a man swimming with a circle crossed out on it. "We draw our water from this. If you want to fish, go for it. But no one should be going into the water. You boys got it?"

Fred nodded slowly. "I promise, neither of us will go swimming in this lake."

The sheriff nodded and walked away. "Best of luck on getting something useful. I hope your show comes back, I liked it."

Ned kept the sheriff in frame as he walked away. "So we're not going into the lake?"

"Nope."

"Shaggy and Scooby?"

"Oh yeah."

Then:

Shaggy was sitting by the lake, looking out over the sunset. He had felt oddly off this summer. The previous summer was one of the best of his life. One of the scariest, yes, but one of the best; he had spent the summer with his best friends, solving mysteries. It was the first time that the four of them had been together for a summer in their entire lives. This summer was going to be different. Fred had gone off to Camp Little Moose for his final summer there, Velma had gone off to computer camp, and he was left all alone with Daphne. It was shaping up to be a miserable summer.

He looked up as Daphne came to sit down next to him. She smiled as she looked over the lake, but sighed heavily. "What do you think of the proposal?"

Shaggy gave a half hearted shrug. "Like, I'm not sure. I don't actually have any plans this summer. Do you?"

"Well, I did. I was going to solve mysteries with the gang. But that's clearly not going to happen."

Shaggy nodded slowly. "True. That was my plan too."

Daphne closed her eyes, titling her head up to the fading sun, trying to get the last few bits of sunlight on her face. "Well, I think we have three options."

"What are they?"

"Well, we can take up the offer that they gave us, we can solve mysteries together or we can go our own way and get summer jobs."

Shaggy shuddered. "Like, no way on the latter man. We're gonna have plenty of times for boring jobs when we grow up. We're still kids, we should do things that kids do; solve mysteries!"

Daphne opened her eyes. "I agree with you. We'll have our entire lives to work. My parents are still fine with funding us if I ask. So now we need to decide how to solve our mysteries."

She turned to look at Shaggy. "Do you think it would be so bad to solve mysteries with just the two of us?"

Shaggy stared back at her and didn't speak for a second. He had never realized how pretty her eyes were. "Ree of rus!"

Daphne jumped. She hadn't noticed Scooby sitting next to Shaggy, but quietly chided herself, of course he would be there. She was just distracted, that was all. "Right, the three of us."

"Like, I know your parents are cool with paying for us to do these things, but, like, it would be nice to have our money to run with."

"Vincent Van Ghoul would give us plenty of that. It feels weird, but it's kind of like cheating, don't you think? I mean, without the rest of them, it doesn't seem right."

Shaggy shrugged. "I mean, we're gonna be splitting up sometime, right? We can't stay here forever. Nothing is forever."

"There is always a new beginning." She smiled, deciding to look on the bright side. "For everything." She placed her hand on his on accident, but it felt right.

"Like, I'll give Van Ghoul a call. It would be cool to get to know one of my favorite actors." His gaze held her's and he was content with her hand on his.

"Re roo!" Scooby placed his hand on theirs, clearly confused about what was going. "Scooby Dooby Doo!"

Now:

"I'm not sure how I get roped into these things," Shaggy said as pulled his scuba mask over his face. "Like, why would we even want to go into the lake? Like, that's where the monster lives. I don't want people coming into my home uninvited, I bet he's the same way."

"Yes, well," Rhett said as he pulled down his own mask, "you also don't try to chase away your neighbors. As for how you got roped into this, you asked for a dog treat, and they gave you one."

"Like, it's not just a dog treat, man. It's a Scooby Snack. Have you ever had one?"

"No, I'm a person."

"You have to learn to live, man." Shaggy shuddered. "Assuming I live past this."

"Re roo!" Scooby said, having his own scuba mask adjusted.

The three of them jumped into the water and started to swim down. It was murky, and the flashlights they had did little to improve their sight. It would've been a danger, nearly deadly dive, but it turned out well for them. Shaggy and Scooby had been doing this sort of stuff for ten plus years, while Rhett had his own military training to fall back on. It was that training that would pay off when they saw the Charles Mill Lake Monster.

It was swimming back and forth in front of a small cave. A light could be seen coming from the light, but beyond the entrance, they couldn't see anything else. Rhett pointed to the surface, and the three of them swam back up to the top.

"He's hiding something, that's for sure."

"But, like, what could it be? You think he has kids? Like little eggs in there" Shaggy paused. "Like, what if it's a girl? Maybe she laid eggs?" He paused again. "I wonder what those eggs taste like."

Rhett snickered. "I bet that you don't talk like that in front of…"

"Don't say anything, man. The rest of them don't know."

Rhett smiled. "Really? I'm the only one who knows?"

Shaggy jerked a thumb towards Scooby. "Well, Scoob too."

Rhett let this sink in, and he wondered what kind of secret he was allowed to keep from Daphne. He had been friends with Shaggy longer than he been with Daphne, how did that weigh in? It didn't matter. Only one thing did. "We have to get in there and see what he's hiding."

"Like, I know. Scoob and I will go and distract the monster while you sneak in."

Rhett shook his head. "No way. You're one of my best friends, I wouldn't let you endanger yourself like that. Besides, your smaller, it will be easier for you to get into that cave and look around. If that's OK with you?"

"You mean, you don't want to use me as bait to get the monster to get away?"

"Of course not. It's going to be dangerous. I'll do it."

Shaggy grinned at Scooby. "Like, how do you like that, for once, we don't have to be the bait. This time around, things may be great, Scoob!"

Rhett didn't think that would be true, not with the secret that Shaggy was hiding. How would the others take it?

Shaggy didn't care about that. For the first time in a long time, he was happy with the mystery and he willingly dove back under water, with no Scooby Snack.

Then:

Daphne Blake was sitting in the bleachers, the wind blowing in hard, causing her to pull her jacket tighter around her. "Well, you didn't make it easy to find you, did you?"

The person talking was Velma, her friend? She had been her friend, but now Daphne was questioning their relationship. Were they ever friends? Or were the two girls in the group being forced to spend time together. What did they have in common? Well, other than that one thing… "It was a hint that I wanted to be left alone. I'm surprised you didn't notice that. You are the smart one, you know that?"

Velma sat down next to her, but she didn't look at her, she stared out over the field, concerned about what her next words were going to be. "That's fair. But I think we need to talk about it."

"I think I said everything that I needed to say," Daphne said evenly.

"You quit the gang today. And you didn't say why."

Daphne glared at her. "You are the smart one, you tell me why I quit."

It was the second time that she had thrown that accusation into Velma's face. That she was the smart one. Was Daphne trying accusing Velma of being smarter than she was? It was true, Velma was smarter than Daphne, and everyone knew that. Well, at book smarts, she was. At other things, Daphne was much smarter. Fashion? She had Velma beat there. But there seemed to be something else. She was better with interpersonal stuff, but did that matter? Velma wasn't the best at those things, but look where she was now, she had her first real boyfriend. "Oh."

"Did it finally click? Did the great Velma Dinkley finally figure out what's been bothering poor Danger Prone Daphne?"

Velma sighed. "No one thinks of you that way."

Daphne scoffed. "Right, that's why they call me that. We don't call Shaggy 'Captain Courage' or you 'Four Eyes' do we? But no, even my best friends call me Danger Prone, do you know how much that bothers me?"

"No, we don't. It was all good natured fun. Why didn't you say anything before?"

"Because it didn't really bother me until just now."

Velma sighed and turned to look at Daphne. "If it means that much, I can fix it all."

"And how are you going to do that? Did you enter a time machine in the science fair? Are you going to back and stop my best friend from stabbing me in the back? Or are you going to go further back and stop Flim Flam from ruining everything?"

"Look, Daphne," Velma said with what little patience remained with her, "If Flim Flam managed to ruin it, then it didn't really have a good base to start with, did it? I mean, it was just a silly little summer fling."

Daphne stared holes through Velma. There was a brief thought of attacking her, knocking her down the bleachers, but she didn't act on that impulse. It wouldn't have changed anything. "And now the truth comes out. I'm glad I quit the gang." Daphne stood up and stormed away.

"C'me on, Daph! We can't let this ruin the gang. We can't let Shaggy come between us!"

Now:

Daphne started looking at the various books in the library and sighed. "Do you really think that we're going to find anything here?"

Velma shrugged. "Not sure, really. I think I've done all the research I need to, I doubt we learn anything new." She paused and looked over at Daphne. "I have a really weird question, what was the first thing that you did when you moved into your dorm room?"

Daphne raised an eyebrow. For a moment, she wanted to not tell the truth, but with Velma, she felt at ease. "I looked for a secret passage."

Velma chuckled. "I did the same exact thing!"

Daphne laughed. "What does it say about our lives that we decided to look for a secret passage in our dorms?"

Velma grinned. "I have no idea. I mean, let's be realistic, we've both seen more than our fair share of secret passages. I made sense at the time."

Daphne grinned. "I guess." She walked over and looked at the various books on the back shelf and paused. "Jeepers, this one is really dusty. And it's got a finger print on it. I don't suppose you have a finger print scanner, do you?"

"Very funny." Velma walked over to and looked at it. "But that finger print does look like it pulled the book, but it didn't pull the book out." She paused. "You don't think that…"

Daphne shrugged. "Only one way to find." She placed her finger on the finger print and pulled the book towards her, and sure enough, as soon as she did, the bookcase slid back and the two women exchanged glances.

"Jinkies!" Velma reached into her backpack and pulled out a flashlight. "You know we have to go into it."

Daphne shook her head in disbelief. "I wonder if other people find this kinda stuff all the time too."

Velma shrugged as she led the way down. "Not even a little sure." The two women fell into a comfortable silence, following the path as it slowly sloped down. The air got chillier until they entered into a dark cave, where both ladies stopped. Velma's flash light shined over a car.

"Jinkies." She shined the light over the car and behind it were another, and another and another. "There are two dozen cars here. And in pristine condition."

"And look how old they are," Daphne said, "These are classic cars."

Velma nodded slowly and shined her light around some more, landing on an old, oak desk. "There's something on there."

Daphne reached over and grabbed the paper that was there. "It's a will. I'm not sure who this guy is, but he's apparently the person who owns or owned all of these cars. It says that he's leaving it to Charles." She paused. "Well, sort of."

"It looks like it's been altered." Velma looked over to Daphne. "I bet you anything that this was mean to say Charles Mill. But why would anyone change who was supposed to get the cars?"

"I don't know, but there is someone coming from that direction. Turn the light off!" Daphne pointed towards the two shapes coming towards them, as Velma turned the light off.

Then:

Velma was sitting in the library, a newspaper resting on the table in front of her. She sighed as she closed her eyes, taking off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. She was soon joined by Fred, sitting next to her, and sighing. "What a summer, huh?"

"Yep." They had just gotten back into town to start their senior year, but what they had expected to happen during the summer did not. They certainly didn't expect to find that their friends had become reality stars, but that is certainly what happened.

"So, did you get all the details?"

Velma put her glasses on and stared at Fred directly. "I suppose that all depends on what kind of details that you are asking for."

Fred motioned his hand in the air in a circular fashion. He wasn't sure what the motion was supposed to accomplish, and Velma just stared at him. It was clear she had no idea what was going on either. "Y'know, just details."

"Well, the show was cancelled."

Fred couldn't hide the smirk. "Well, duh. I mean, who wants to watch that Flim Flam kid? I mean, he was annoying."

"Agreed, but do yourself a favor, don't mention him to Shaggy or Daphne. They aren't too happy with him."

"Why not?"

Velma tilted her head to the side, trying to read her friend's face. "Oh, you don't know? You saw the show, right?"

"I did," Fred said slowly.

Velma grinned. "So then you know that Daphne and Shaggy were dating this summer."

"I do."

"Do you realize that they are no longer dating?"

Fred couldn't hold back his smile. "Really? I hadn't heard that."

"I could tell," Velma said slowly, "Well, the reason for that is because of Flim Flam."

"But he's like twelve. It's not like either of them would be interested in dating him."

"Jinkies! Not even a little bit! But he did…arrange things to go a certain way. He thought it would've made for an interesting season two. Sadly, not going to happen."

Fred shook his head. "Yep, that's a shame."

"Fred Jones!" Velma said with a grin, "You have the world's worst poker face. You are practically beaming!"

Fred rolled his eyes. "And what about you?"

"What about me?"

"Don't pretend that you don't have your eyes on Mister Rogers."

"I assume," Velma said slowly, "That you are talking about Shaggy and not the gentleman who is having a wonderful day in his neighborhood."

"Shaggy."

Velma didn't speak another word, but instead she turned a bright red and became very interested in her newspaper.

"You are a good person, Velm, you are a good person."

Now:

Velma and Daphne were ready. As soon as the monster showed up, they were going to pounce. They had to wait for just the right moment, and soon, the shadow came into view, and they leapt onto two figures?

"Like, Scoob, the monster's got me!"

"Rit's rot re roo!"

Velma and Daphne sat up. "Shaggy? Scooby?"

"Like, it knows my name!"

Velma and Daphne shared one thought, though neither of them knew it at the time. 'Did I really date you?' "Shaggy, it's us. Daphne and Velma," Velma said slowly.

Shaggy got to his feet and dusted off his scuba suit. "I totally knew that. Didn't we know that, Scoob?"

"I ridn't."

"Some man's best friend you are." Shaggy turned to look at the girls. "Like what are you two doing down here?"

"Same thing you are," Daphne said, "Looking for clues. But we need to be careful; we don't know where the monster is."

"We know where he is. Rhett's out there leading him away so that we can come here and find some clues. And we found a good one!"

"Re round rease!"

"Well, there are a bunch of cars here," Velma said, "That means that there is bound to be some grease around, it's expected."

"Like, not this kind. It's cooking grease. Trust me, Scoob and I have eaten enough of it to know the difference between the two."

Velma bit her lip slightly. "Well, I think that's everything we need to understand. Now we only need to do one thing, catch that monster!"

"You don't think it's a real monster?" Daphne asked.

"I wish it was, but it's not. This is clearly just another man in a mask."

Shaggy looked at Scooby. "Like, I'm worried that we're going to be in trouble, don't you?" His dog merely nodded his head in agreement. "I knew we should've asked for some more Scooby Snacks from Fred!"

Before they could argue the merits of getting more Scooby Snacks, there was a racket that came from the same place they had entered the room from. They didn't really get a chance to make a comment about it, as the source of the noise became readily available, it was Rhett.

"Gang way!" He yelled. He pointed towards the secret passage that they had used. "Guys, go that way! The monster is right behind me!"

Scooby and Shaggy did not need to be told twice about what to avoid, they took off running like their lives depended on it. They had no idea where this path went or what was on the other side. It didn't matter; they knew what was on their side of the path.

They were joined with Velma and Daphne behind them, and Rhett taking up the rear, casting looks over his shoulder. He figured that he could take this monster on his own, but he recognized when he was part of a team, that everyone had to play their role, and he was going to play his.

Then:

Fred found himself sitting under a tree outside the high school, various different pamphlets sitting on the ground in front of him, each of them being held down with various odds and ends to make sure that they didn't blow away. He was feeling quite overwhelmed.

"Well, that's a lot of options."

He jumped slightly, one of the papers leaving his hand, and he reached up quickly to grab it before it could go away in the breeze. "Hey, Daph." He looked at the various pamphlets, each one for a different school, each one touting that this was the place for him to find his future at. "Yeah, I guess it is a lot." He looked up at her. "I'm surprised; don't you have a lot of choices to make too?"

Daphne smiled as she sat down, looking at one of the pamphlets. "The University of Anchorage Alaska?" She raised an eyebrow. "Didn't have you pegged as a…" she paused as she looked at the pamphlet in more detail, "A Sea Wolf?"

Fred jerked the paper from her. "I have a lot of options. They gave me a full ride. And you never answered my question. Aren't you even a little bit worried about where you are going?"

Daphne leaned her head back, her face turned toward the sun. "I'm not. You remember when we did a tour of Darrow University?"

"I do."

"And do you remember when we went to that dormitory?"

"Yeah, of course. How could I forget? Blake Dormitory was state of the art." He stopped as a thought went through his head. "Blake? Like your family, Blake?"

Daphne nodded. "When your family has their name on the side of a building, it becomes easy to see where your future lies. My sisters all went there, my parents, my grandparents and so on for practically forever. It wouldn't surprise me if there was some cave man version of my family learning how to make fire on that spot."

Fred pictured the idea, a cave man with long, flowing, red hair learning how to make fire. He snickered as he picked up another pamphlet. "Velma is going to Duke. She thinks that my scores could get me in there."

"Do you even want to go to Duke?"

"No, not really."

"What do you want, Fred?"

He paused as the thought went through his mind. He knew instantly what he wanted; he didn't want the gang to split apart. But there wasn't a way for him to do that. "Where is Shaggy going to go?"

"He has no plans. All he knows for sure is that he is done with the idea of school. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't just put a cot in the back of the malt shop." She sighed. "Honestly, he's going to travel. But it will just be him, Scooby and Scrappy, I'm sure."

Fred sighed. "I wish I knew what to do."

Daphne opened her eyes and turned to look at Fred. "You could stay with me, y'know?"

"I just might." He looked at the Darrow University information and smiled. "I just might."

Now:

Shaggy and Scooby stumbled out of the entrance and went into the library, where they tumbled over a table, sending it crashing to the ground. They found themselves withering on the ground, their legs getting in each other's way. "Ret ro!"

"You let go!"

This scene was joined by Daphne coming out of the tunnel. She saw what was going on, but when she tried to stop, her feet got tangled up and she tumbled over the upturned table. On her way down, she reached up and grabbed onto Velma to try to keep from falling, but all that she managed to do was pull Velma down as well, adding both of them onto the mess.

"Like, thanks, Danger Prone Daphne."

"That's just rude."

"My glasses!" Velma called out, "I can't see a thing without my glasses!"

Rhett came out of the tunnel and managed to mutter, "That's not very funny," as he tried to leap over the table, but clipped the edge and fell on the rest of the gang.

Lastly, the Charles Mill Lake Monster came out of the tunnel, but before anything else could be done by him, he found a rope dropped over his body and he was pulled off his feet, crashing to the ground. "Well," Fred said, on the other end of the rope, "That's not exactly how I drew it up, but I think we did quite well."

Ned reached down and handed Velma her glasses, and got her to her feet. "Well, we were a bit rusty, yes."

The rest of the gang got to their feet, grumbling gently as Ned caught it all on camera. "So, who is it?" Rhett asked.

"That's what I want to know," Sheriff Cage said as he came in, sunglasses in his hands. "What's going on here?"

"Well, we knew that this wasn't a real monster, and it is only connected to the original monster in one very real way. But that meant that he was stuck," Fred said, "The problem was that the original monster was armless. That meant he had to use a suit that didn't have an arm. Which means that it was easy for us to rope him." Fred looked at the rope. "I was hoping to have a more fun trap, but there you go."

Shaggy grinned. "See, I knew who he had to be, because there was grease at the other end of that tunnel, but it wasn't car grease, it was cooking grease."

"And," Daphne said, "At the other end of that tunnel is close to two dozen classic cars. I'm sure other people in town would've known what the worth of this was, but there was one person who really would've wanted this."

"But the really interesting thing was this," Velma said as she held up the will, "Someone tried to alter this. It had said 'Charles Mill' but it now just says Charles. And I bet they weren't done with it."

"See, this monster has one connection to the original. The original was reported by," Fred reached down and grabbed the mask off the man, "His dad. Charlie is our monster. He wanted to get the cars to himself and make a killing on it."

Sheriff Cage shook his head. "Charlie, you were doing a pretty good job with the diner. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Charlie looked up at the gang and glared. "I would've gotten away with it, if it weren't for you meddling kids."

Then:

Shaggy was sitting behind the wheel of his new van. It was a graduation present from his Great Uncle Nathaniel, and he loved it. It wasn't the Mystery Machine, but he was completely fine with it. It was glistening red and longer than the Mystery Machine was. It was also tricked out, so that when he and the dogs went out on their travels, they could still stay in the van and be safe. Also, they could play video games, and there was a fully stocked kitchen. In short, it was Shaggy's dream. Mostly.

"Hey!"

Shaggy turned to look out the window and saw Velma walking towards him. "Hey yourself."

Velma ran a finger over the van. "Pretty sweet ride."

"It'll do for what I want."

Velma sighed. "I never did apologize, did I?"

Shaggy held his hand up. "Like no need. Things didn't work out between us, it's something that happens." He smiled. "Like, I'm just more upset things didn't work out between you and…"

"Don't even say the name."

Shaggy nodded slowly. "You got it." He opened the door to the van and motioned Velma to the back. "Like, let me show you the best parts!"

Velma allowed herself to be shown everything and she had to admit, she was very impressed. "This is pretty cool." She sighed. "Are you sure you aren't going to college?"

"No way, man," Shaggy said with a grin. "Like, the scholarly life just isn't the life for me. Scoob and I have big plans. We're gonna travel this country and figure out what makes it tick, y'know?"

Velma raised an eyebrow. "But you've traveled so much already."

"And I was running for my life. Like, I want to see if we can go to Mount Rushmore without the presidents trying to scare me away for the oil they keep in their noses or whatever."

Velma smiled. "I suppose it would be nice if we could go somewhere without some guy in a mask trying to stop us." She paused. "You know, it's silly, but…never mind."

Shaggy shook his head. "You can't do that. You gotta tell me what you your thinking."

"I really would like if one of these things that we found was actually real, you know what I mean?"

"Like, you and I have very different goals in life."

Velma snickered. "You are probably right. You would be happy to never see a creepy thing your life again, right?"

"Like, you've got that right. And that's what we're going to do, live life without anything creepy."

"Shaggy," Velma said softly, "I know things haven't always been great with us, but will you stay in touch?"

Shaggy grinned. "Like, try to stop me." He stopped. "I will always follow the ongoing adventures of Velma Dinkley."

Now:

The gang had piled back into the Mystery Machine, and started to put Charles Mill in the background. For the first time since they had gotten back together, they felt like things were trying to start to fall into place for them. Everyone started to feel at ease when the radio crackled to life. "That was a very impressive catch, Mystery Incorporated!"

"Well, I would hope that you would think so, since you are the reason that we were even here, Mr. F," Velma said, barely hiding her contempt.

"You don't approve of me, do you?" The voice on the other side said.

"No," Fred said rolling his eyes, "We totally trust the mysterious man who broke into the van and managed to bug it and now talks to us without any real indication about who he is or what his ultimate goal is."

"And here I was expecting Velma to be the one to say that."

Rhett shook his head. "Man, this dude isn't gonna tell us anything."

"Well, that part just isn't true. I'm here to warn you of people that are ought to destroy you."

Ned raised an eyebrow. "That can't be right," he said, "we generally just run into people, they don't go looking for us. Besides, they can't be ready for us to just show up in random spots."

"Really?" Mr. F laughed on the other end. "How many people do you think you've wronged over your life? How many men have you put away?"

"Hundreds at this point," Daphne said.

"Exactly. See, Mystery Incorporated, your past is coming back to haunt you. There is something in motion that will test all of you. In order to survive what's coming, you must be stronger than ever, more united than ever before. I hope that I can stall this off long enough for you to survive."

"Well, that was like, totally cryptic," Shaggy said as he shivered.

"Rand rary!"

"And annoying. You told us nearly nothing useful. Our past is coming back? If you know what's going on, you need to tell us," Velma said bitterly.

"I could give you one of the names, but it won't mean anything to you."

"Try us," Daphne said.

"Fine, I'll play. Mr. E is keeping tabs on you."

The gang mostly rolled their eyes. Of course it was Mr. E. Why wouldn't it have been? Well, most of them did. Velma's face showed a flash of concern.

"Uh oh, gang." Fred said. "I think we'll need to stop for gas. I didn't think to fill up."

"Does that mean we'll have to go back and get gas at Charles Mill?" Ned asked.

"We don't have to do that," Velma said, "We can just get gas in that town up there."

"Wait, what did you just say?" Mr F said over the radio.

"There's a town up here," Fred said, "About hundred yards away. We'll just stop there and get gas."

"That's just it guys, there isn't a town on my map at…" Mr. F's voice faded away as soon as the gang passed the sign that read, "Now Entering Treefallen."


	8. Episode 8: Welcome to Treefallen

Then:

Crystal Cove's prom that year was…interesting to say the least. The theme was "Apathy" which is what happens when Shaggy and Scooby were somehow placed in charge of the prom. To show their lack of interest, there was exactly one balloon for decoration and it simply said "Happy birthday." There were cookies and punch, but they were generic cookies that were found in the grocery store and the punch was fruit punch that was found in the next aisle over. The effort was minimal, to say the least.

But that didn't seem to bother his girlfriend, Rachel, at all. She was dressed in a vibrant blue dress with her blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail, and a smile was plastered on her face. "Shaggy, this is amazing! Just like you are!" She cuddled up next to Shaggy, who was busy looking at the food on the table.

"Like, thanks!"

She looked around and sighed. "And you know what the best part of all of this is?"

"What is it?"

"I finally get you all to myself. I know it was awkward to get apart from the gang for tonight, but I really appreciate it." She smiled. "And you know what the best part of that is?"

"Nope."

"Soon, it will just be us all the time. I mean, they are all going to different places for college, and that means that we'll be able to go to our own school. Just the two of us." She smiled as she closed her eyes. "Won't that be grand?"

"Like, Rachel, we've talked about this." Shaggy shuffled his feet slightly and pulled away from her. "I'm like a rolling stone, man, I don't gather moss. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"I'm not even sure you understand what you are saying right now."

Shaggy walked over to a window and stared out it. "Like, I know I'm not saying this the right way, but what I mean is that I'm gonna go out on the road, and like, see what this country is all about. I can't just settle down in one spot and see Academia, I need to see America." He turned to look at her. "Like, do you get what I mean?"

Rachel paused in any movements. She took a careful consideration of the words that he was saying, and what he wasn't saying. He could feel her heart start to rip in two. They hadn't been dating long, just since January, but she still felt a very real connection to Shaggy. "What…what if I go with you?"

Shaggy raised an eyebrow. "Like, is that what you even want? To travel up and down the back roads? Seeing what's out there? Never having a home except the place you are gonna put your hat down?"

Rachel knew the answer to that one. She totally wanted that. But not now. She wanted to be a news anchor, and she did want to travel, but she needed to go to college to do that. "I can't. You knew that."

Shaggy nodded. "Like, yeah, man. I did. It's why I wanted to talk to you know. I think it's time that we ended things."

"You're dumping me." She waved her arms in the general area around her. "At prom?" She grabbed a cup of juice and launched it in his face. "Shaggy Rogers, you are the worst!"

Now:

The Mystery Machine had grown very quiet, eerily so. Mr. F's voice had just stopped as they crossed the line to the town they were in, Treefallen. It was finally Shaggy who broke the silence. "Like, that was weird for all of us, right?"

"Yeah," Ned said, "It was odd."

Fred shrugged as he pulled the van into the gas station. "Might as well enjoy the fact that he's not talking to us. Shag, Scoob, you all are snack detail."

"And that means that snacks for all of us," Velma said, "Not just the two of you."

"I think I'll go in and make sure that they stay focused," Rhett said.

"Good idea," Daphne said. She watched the three of them walk into the station itself to get the food as she leaned against the van. But something caught her eyes. "Hey guys," she said, "Do you notice anything odd about this place?"

"I do," Rhett said. "Everyone here is wearing tie-dyed shirts. I have to say that is particularly odd." He looked around the area and raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure about this. Are you all getting an uneasy feeling as well?"

Fred grinned. "Given what we do for a living, I get an uneasy feeling every time that I wake up. And when I go to bed. My entire life really."

"There's something odd, that's a given, but it could be anything really. I'm sure deductive reasoning will get to the bottom of this." Velma glanced around the area. "Like it's a celebration of the 60s." She pointed towards a banner that was hanging off just near the sign that said Main Street. "That's probably why they are all dressed like that."

"I suppose a better mystery is why anyone would want to celebrate the 60s," Daphne said. "I mean, at least like they are. It doesn't even to be for any particular reason. They seem like they are celebrating the 60s just to celebrate it."

"Well," Fred said with a smirk, "It's the fiftieth anniversary of 1967. It's kind of a big deal."

"Jerk," Daphne said playfully shaking her head. She turned to look around and motioned towards the local high school, with the sign stating that it was named after Don Knots. "See that?"

"Why would someone in the middle of nowhere Ohio name their high school after Don Knots?" Ned asked.

"I don't think that she was talking about that," Fred said.

"Oh, I know," Ned grinned. "I think she was talking about the part of the sign that talks about the high school prom. I am willing to bet that the theme is the 60s."

"I agree with that," Velma said, putting her hand to her chin. "But I am confused about something. The people wearing the shirts aren't kids, they are our age, or older. What kind of town celebrates their high school prom this far into life?"

Ned shrugged. "Some people say that high school was the best time of their lives. Maybe they are all still stuck in the past." He noticed that as he said this, the three other people around him did not look each other in the eyes. Ned realized that he may have stuck a nerve on that one. "Not that there is anything wrong with that."

Daphne rolled her eyes. "Subtle." She motioned towards the store front. "Hey, there's Shaggy and Scooby."

"Yeah," Fred said, "But who is that with them?"

Then:

Prom wasn't what he though it would be. Fred Jones had big thoughts about what this night would be about. He would be here with his girlfriend, surrounded by his best friends and it was going to the best night of his life. Reality, as it sometimes does, did not match up to his hopes.

To start he was alone, no girlfriend to call his own. For one shining moment, he thought he saw an opening, but he didn't act fast enough, he got himself caught up in other issues and he lost his shot to get the girl.

He probably would've been fine with that, if it wasn't for the other issues that he had ran into. This was really the issue that he never saw coming; the gang weren't friends anymore. Weird jealousy had gotten in the way of that. Fred was jealous of Shaggy, not that he showed it, but it was there. Fred had issues with Daphne, but not that she would've understood it. He loved her, but he couldn't find the time to tell her, and now she was with someone else.

He actually didn't have any issues with Velma, but that didn't change the fact that she had issues with the other two members of the group. Shaggy and she had broken up. She was worried that he felt everything was going to be awkward between them, but she didn't have to be. Things were awkward between her and Daphne. This was for two very related reasons. One, Velma had started to date Shaggy, and it brought back feelings that Daphne knew she shouldn't have had, and two, Velma had replaced Daphne on the team with someone else. And that backfired in her big time, and how.

Daphne was concerned that Shaggy was upset with her, and she was a bit annoyed he would date Velma behind her back. Fred knew that Shaggy didn't mean to hide the relationship, but he could tell that was how Daphne felt. In short, Mystery Inc had seen better days and those days were rapidly ending.

Fred could see the series of mistakes that all four of them had made to get to this point, but there was one thing that Fred was not going to be able to see, the mistake that was going to change his entire life that he would make in a few short moments. But then again, what eighteen year old would've realized that this was the kind of mistake that would come back to haunt him in ten years?

"Fred Jones?" A voice called out from behind him.

He jumped in the air, and turned around, to see a young woman his own age covering her mouth as she tried not to laugh. She was dressed divinely, which made sense as they were at prom, and that was expected of them. "I am so sorry," she said between chuckles, "I didn't mean to scare you."

Fred straightened his ascot, and felt his face going red. "You didn't." He realized when he said it just how lamed that sound, "scare me that much." He knew that it was lame when he said it.

"Of course," the girl said with a knowing smile. "Let's try another topic of conversation, shall we?" She leaned forward and looked into his eyes, "What's a boy like you doing with no date." She took an exaggerated look around the prom, "I mean, I don't see one, do you?"

Fred shook his head. "I'm alone here. What about you?"

"Utterly," she said.

"Well, Nancy Chang," Fred said, "Would you care to dance?

Now:

Inside the connivance store, Rhett Herring was looking over various different types of beef jerky. He wasn't sure why he was doing this, he rarely got to eat any of the snacks that he bought. One way or another Shaggy and Scooby managed to eat them. But he just had a good feeling this time. He was going to eat that jerky yet.

He carefully made his selection and turned around to grab something for Daphne when he saw something that made him pause. "What are you doing?"

Shaggy had his arms full of various different snacks; chips, jerky, peanuts, doughnuts, anything that they may have been able to find were piled up to Shaggy's face and beyond. Rhett didn't want to say it out loud, but the only way to describe it would be the Leaning Tower of Snacks. "Like, I'm getting some snacks for us!"

Rhett raised an eyebrow and grabbed something, anything off the shelf for Daphne. He was going to make sure that she got to eat something this time. "If you say so, man."

Rhett paid for his food and stepped aside so that Shaggy could drop his giant pile of snacks on the counter. "Like, look at that, Scoob, it's a new flavor!" He reached down and grabbed a bag that read "Ketchup."

Rhett raised an eyebrow. "Don't get those."

"Why not?"

"Nobody wants to eat those."

"Like, of course they do!"

Rhett motioned to the shelf the chips were on. "If people want to eat those, how come the only bag they've sold is the one in your hand?"

"Like, they just restocked."

"There is dust on these!" It was an exaggeration, but Rhett couldn't imagine that these had ever sold anywhere.

"Well, looks like we have some new blood in town!" A man that neither of them had noticed before was standing by the counter. He was wearing a two button black suit, with a hideous lime green tie with pineapples on it. His shoes were brown, clashing with the suit. In fact, Rhett had to guess that this was a man who wanted to dress to impress but hadn't caught any of the most recent issues of GQ.

"That's right," Rhett said guardedly, "We're just passing through. Who are you?"

"You are right, sir! It's very rude of me to not introduce myself." He walked over to Rhett and held his hand out, looking him in the eye. "My name is Mayor Westbrook."

"Pleased to meet you," Rhett said as he grabbed his hand. "My name is Rhett. This is my friend Shaggy."

The mayor grabbed Shaggy's hand and stared deep into his eyes as well. "Nice to meet you as well!"

"Rait…" Scooby said as he looked at the mayor.

However, the mayor stopped whatever thoughts Scooby had by petting him on the head and looking him in the eyes. "I'm so glad to meet all of you!" He motioned outside to the Mystery Machine. "Why don't you introduce me to your friends?"

The guys nodded in agreement, and left to bring him out there, not noticing that Mayor grabbed their items and left without paying.

Then:

Velma Dinkley had really thought that she was going to be at her prom with someone, anyone, really. She was supposed to have a date. Life wasn't fair. "And now here you are," she muttered to herself, "talking to yourself at the prom, telling no one how unfair life is. That's just wonderful. I'm basically a walking cliché. Bravo."

She turned around to walk away when she nearly ran over a small man wearing a neon green suit. "Velma!" He squealed, he was wearing braces, and had glasses that seemingly covered his entire forehead. "You are exactly who I was looking for!"

Velma sighed and closed her eyes. "Jason Wyatt, what can I do for you?"

Jason smiled so largely that it should've been impossible. "You are the perfect woman!" He paused. "The only woman other than my mother who has ever touched my hand."

"That was an accident. I was reaching for the mouse and touched your hand, Jason."

Jason smiled. "It doesn't matter! It still happened! It totally counts!"

Velma sighed. "It does, fine. What do you want?"

"I want you to be my girlfriend."

"Not going to happen."

Jason sighed. "But you aren't with anyone. You aren't dating Shaggy anymore, nor are you still dating…"

"Stop talking now," Velma said, putting a finger to his lips. "Or I swear, I will end you." She pulled her hand back and walked away from him.

"You touched my lips! We're basically married!"

Velma turned around and glared at him. "Really? What is wrong with your stupid, little brain?"

"But my IQ is…"

Velma shook her head. "No, I get it. You are a genius. But not when it comes to talking to people. That's insane. You are insane!"

Jason frowned. "Velma, you sound angry."

"Why would I not be? I don't have anyone with me. And the only person who is showing me any interest at all is a lunatic who can't talk to another person without coming off like a mouth breather!"

Jason felt his lip twitching. "Velma, that's mean."

"That's life, Jason!" She walked away from him. "And that's the truth. You are friendless and a loser and you will always be those things! I hate you. Everyone here hates you. You are a creepy, pathetic child!"

Jason looked down, and tears welled up in his eyes. "I thought you were different." He turned and ran off.

Velma briefly felt a pang of guilt and she thought about going to talk to him and apologize, but she knew that she was still angry and nothing good was going to come from that talk. She would do it in the morning, she decided. It would be better that way. She had no way of knowing that Jason had just moved, and that he wasn't going to be back in school with her again.

Instead, she sighed and looked out at the dance floor. "I think it may be time that I put something together instead of tearing it apart."

Now:

Ned waved to the guys as they made their way out of the store, and was the first one to shake hands with the mayor. "Wow, that's quite a grip you got there!"

Mayor Westbrook grinned widely. "Always believed that it is the only real way to introduce you to a new friend! I'm Mayor Westbrook, and welcome to Treefallen!"

Daphne smiled. "Gee, honey, I am very surprised that you were able to make a new friend that quickly." She was the next one to get the handshake and the penetrating stare from the mayor. "He normally is more of a loner."

"Well, if he wants to be alone, he found the right spot. We have numerous places in town for just that. Maybe the two of you would fancy a walk in one of our wonderful parks?"

Fred shook his head. "I don't think that's very likely. We're going to be leaving pretty soon."

Mayor Westbrook grinned as he took his hand. "Wish you wouldn't, Fred Jones. A stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet."

"Wait…" Velma said as a perplexed look crossed her face. Her thoughts were interrupted by the mayor's vigorous hand shake. "I think we can stay for a bit longer."

"It does look like a wonderful town," Ned said. "I think I speak for all of us when I say we should stick around. At least long enough to check out the local sights."

"I think it's a wonderful idea!" Mayor Westbrook said, "I even know the best spot; the senior prom!"

Daphne shook her head. She felt like she was suddenly trying to swim through cold water, and her head started to ache. "You let random strangers, adults, attend the senior prom. That seems…" She found herself staring into the mayor's eyes again, "like a great way to build rapport with the whole town. I wonder why more towns don't do that."

"We do things a bit differently here in Treefallen." He grinned as he waved. "But I need to be going. I hope you all enjoy your stay here!"

The gang all waved to him as he walked off, and started to pile into the van. "Like, we're not going to go to prom, are we?"

Daphne sighed as she grabbed Rhett's hand. "I wish we could, but we are really not dressed for it."

"Yeah," Velma said bitterly, "And I don't remember our actually senior prom going all that well, do you?"

Daphne frowned. "I suppose not. But I do remember it ending well."

"Well," Rhett said, "It had to go better than mine did. I went to military school. We were paired off at random with some of the girls from the school down the road. It was not pleasant."

Shaggy snickered. He recalled only too well how those school dances went. He was staring out the window and paused. "Wait, did you guys see that?"

Fred turned back to look to where Shaggy was pointing. "See what?"

"There's a man out there, man."

"I'm not surprised," Velma said, "We're in a town."

"Like, I guess your right." But Shaggy was pretty certain that there was something off about the man he just saw, but for the life of him, he couldn't say what.

Then:

Daphne shivered as she stood outside the gymnasium. She had gone inside the prom with her date and scoped out the place, but seeing the gang, it did something to her. She hadn't been part of the group in quite a while, and it felt like they were trying to replace her. And now she was trying to replace them, though it didn't feel like she was winning.

"Hey babe," a man said as he wrapped his arm around her, "What's wrong?"

Daphne smiled slightly as she snuggled into his arms. "Hey Baylor." She closed her eyes. "Nothing really. I just miss my friends."

"Oh babe," Baylor Hotner said with a smile on his perfect face, "You don't need them. You got me now." He let go of her and made a grand motion with his hands into the air, "Once you are with Baylor Hotner, you don't need anything else."

Daphne sighed as she heard squeals. She had been dating Baylor for a month or two when they had met at a party that her parents were throwing. He had started to run in their social circles thanks to him being one of the lead stars of the Dusk films. Daphne loved them, of course, what teenage girl didn't, and she found herself falling deep for the wereturtle that was in the movie. And when he appeared in front of her, what else could she do?

For his part, he was trying to show that he was a "normal" person who could fit in with the common people. Daphne was as "normal" as he was willing to get. She was a beautiful, rich young girl who was clearly hurting and she was the exact thing that he could use to keep his name out there. And it was working, as every time they went out, he made sure that he said his name loudly and being at a high school dance was perfect for him. "Ladies," he said as a group of teenage girls ran up to him, "I will be more than happy to sign anything for you." He emphasized the word 'anything' and waggled his eyebrows up and down.

"Do we have to do this right now?" Daphne asked, her eyes filling with rage.

"Well, babe," he said, "my adoring public is basically begging me for it."

"Begging you for something," she muttered under her breath.

"What was that?"

"You know what? You are very handsome, very rich and honestly I'm not even sure if having abs like that is legal, but I don't care!"

Baylor got confused for a moment. He definitely understood that he money, looks and abs that most men could only dream of getting. He heard all of that, but it was the last part that confused him. So he ignored it. "I do have some amazing abs." He turned and winked towards one of the girls in the pack.

"You know what," Daphne said, waving her arm towards the pack of girls, "Why don't you go with one of them? Don't bother spending time with me at the prom. We're done."

"Done with what?"

Daphne stared at him, fire in her eyes. "I am breaking up with you. God, you are so vain!"

Now:

Shaggy continued to look out the window. He had seen a man, that much he knew. In fact, no one was arguing with him about that, but there was more about that man than even Shaggy could say. In fact, nothing was sitting right about this town to him. The further that he got away from the mayor, the more clear that he seemed to be thinking. Why would the mayor want them to go to a high school prom? That seemed like the dumbest action in the world for a bunch of adults who didn't work at the school to take. Something was certainly up.

Ned was sitting next to Shaggy, and he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something that was wrong too. The mayor was very glad to see them, but was he too glad? It seemed to him that there was something off about that. He looked over to Velma and smiled. Nothing else seemed to be off when it came to his feelings. He still felt the same about her. In fact, he felt like this may have been the time to take actions on his feelings. It was funny, really, she didn't seem to notice the same things that he was noticing about the town. He couldn't shake the feeling that this should've been important to him, but he didn't notice it. He was in love.

Sitting next to Ned was Rhett. He stared out the window and shook his head. He wanted to drive. This thought had never hit him before but it was very true. He desperately had wanted to drive. This desire was sudden, and it was very real. He hated Fred right now. Fred always drove. In fact, since this whole thing started, they never had anyone else drive. Well, that was not going to last much longer. Rhett knew how to drive and he was going to get his chance and soon!

Fred was behind the wheel, but he wasn't sure where he was going. In fact, he wasn't sure if he even fit into this group. He wanted to lead, that was what he did before, but Velma was clearly able to fit into that role as well as he ever did. He wanted to build traps, but Ned was able to step in and figure out how to do those as well, and they were just as good as anything Fred ever made. And there was one more role that Fred wanted to fill, he wanted to be with Daphne. Even that role was taken by someone else though, and Fred had to admit that Rhett was a good man now, and he loved Daphne. Honestly, it wouldn't have been too big of an issue if Fred just understood why he and Daphne didn't work. Years had gone by, and there was no real knowledge about why and it tore him up inside. At least he was still able to drive everywhere and no one had tried to take that from him.

Next to Fred was Velma. It was an odd change, normally she sat by the window, but given the group dynamics and what had happened in the past, and she felt that this was the best way for her to help keep the piece. She felt that she wanted to think that something was off about this town, but anytime that her thoughts went towards that, it was like her entire brain became slippery and all thoughts faded from her. And then there was that smell that she just couldn't place, but it seemed familiar.

Daphne was by the window, staring out at the trees. This town seemed odd. It didn't feel real. It didn't feel like it was where it should've been. It was small, very small, but it seemed bigger than it looked? She had no idea exactly where these thoughts were leading her, but there was something off. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. There was a smell in the air, it was sweet but in ways that seemed to upset her stomach. Nothing was making sense.

Then:

Daphne was filled with anger as she found her way outside the football field. She shuddered again, this time from anger, not from the cold. It was as if the cold could no longer touch her. She sat down on the bleachers, crossing her right leg over her left, and bounced it in anger. "I can't believe him."

There was no one there to answer her. She didn't expect there to be. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, this was not going to be the senior prom that she had wanted, but who really got that? The question was not rhetorical, she really wanted to know who ever got what they wanted.

"Is this bench for anyone?" A voice called from behind her.

Daphne jumped in the air and turned to look at who was speaking to her. "Oh, it's you."

Velma nodded as she sat down next to Daphne. She stared off into space and the two fell into an uncomfortable silence that only ended when Velma said, "I'm sorry I tried to replace you."

"Which time," Daphne asked bitterly.

"With Shaggy and then the group."

Daphne smirked. "Honestly, I wouldn't have been so unhappy with you, if it wasn't for the latter. I got over Shaggy, but you moved so quickly to get someone else in the group that it made me feel like you thought I was replaceable."

"You're not," Velma said simply.

"Neither of you are," another voice said. It was Shaggy and he looked forlorn. "Like, I don't think any of us are." He sat down next to them and stared out at the football field. "It's funny, y'know," he said gesturing all around them, "Like, all of this stuff seems so important and that it's gonna be there forever and we all know that it ends. Like, it ends so soon, man."

Velma nodded. "It does. That was very…well thought out for you."

Daphne laughed. "Even your compliments are mean. Why did you have to qualify that for him?"

"It's what she does," the last voice said, coming up the benches. None of them had to look, they knew that it was Fred Jones. "But we all have flaws, don't we, gang?"

Shaggy nodded. "We do. I think it's time that we all, like, recognize that we're not perfect. It'll be good for us, man."

Velma shrugged. "Maybe I am perfect." She closed her eyes and dropped her head. "I didn't mean that. I know I have flaws. I just…" she closed her eyes, "I feel like none of you accept me."

"That's funny," Shaggy said, "I've actually been rejected by two of you . Like, imagine how I feel."

"Jeepers," Daphne said, "You all actually replaced me. I thought we were friends. That's not how friends react."

Fred didn't have any words. The gang seemed to be broken, maybe forever and he didn't have the first idea how to fix it. "Why don't we.." he started, Daphne stood up, stopping him.

"I'm going home."

"Like, me too."

"I concur."

And one by one, all of his friends left him standing there, confused.

Now:

Fred pulled the Mystery Machine off on the side of the road and turned to look at his friends. "Are you all thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Like, that all depends," Shaggy said as he shivered, "Are you thinking that we need to get out of town."

Fred smiled. "Actually, yes."

Shaggy's face dropped. "Like, really?"

"Really?" Rhett asked confused.

Daphne shook her head. That didn't sound right. This town was odd, that much was clear. Something was going on, and wasn't this the sort of thing that Mystery Inc was supposed to take care of? "Why are we not solving this mystery?"

"Velma, help me out here. Do you see our sort of mystery here?"

Velma shook her head. "No. I mean, something is clearly going on here, but we deal with men in masks. A town that is just really odd isn't really our sort of thing. And there wasn't anything that screams crime. How exactly would you like to look at the clues?"

Ned grimaced. She was right. While this would've been a mystery to solve, it really wasn't their kind of mystery. There wasn't anything for them to film. It was time to move on.

Shaggy and Scooby exchanged looks. For the first time that they could remember, they were getting exactly what they wanted, but somehow, it didn't feel the way that they had always hoped that it would. They were more concerned than anything.

Rhett looked over at Daphne and the two shared a thought. It was something that they had realized they could do since they got engaged. They never really gave it any real thought. They assumed that all couples could do it. They were wrong. But that didn't matter right now, what did was the thought "this is wrong" that went between the two of them. They each shuddered as that thought passed between them and then vanished.

Velma and Ned did not have the ability to share a thought, at least not at that moment. Velma couldn't shake the cloud that had gone over her mind. She knew that something felt off, but she couldn't get a good grasp on it. Ned had one thought on his mind, and it was only a matter of time before he acted on these thoughts. Honestly, he wasn't sure why it took him so long to do this.

The Mystery Machine drove along the road, the entire group was in silence, different thoughts distracting them. It was then that they left the town limits. They passed the sign that read "Now Leaving Treefallen, Come Back Soon" when the radio suddenly sprang to life. "You have to listen to me, stop the…" Mr. F's voice sprang out and died just as suddenly. But Fred didn't even register it. Instead, he was worried about something else.

"Gang…that sign," Fred said with concern.

The sign that caused Fred to look so concerned came into view, as the Mystery Machine passed it. "Welcome to Treefallen."


	9. Episode 9: Something in the Air

Then:

He had left Mystery Inc pretty early, only spending one summer with them before he went back to his family, Ma and Pa Skillett, but life wasn't quite the same. He didn't really fit in with Mystery Inc, but after all the excitement, he couldn't adjust back to what he had done. Scooby Dum's life was boring.

He wanted to join the police force, but there didn't seem to be a call for him around. Plus he was a mystery solver now, his name and picture had been in the paper and everything, and they couldn't find a way for him to get into the police force. It didn't seem fair.

He lay down on the front porch, his head on his front paws, his tail wagging slowly in the noon sun. He could hear the crickets in the distance, as he looked at the sky, looking at shapes in the clouds. He had always heard that if you were to look into the cloud, and interpret what you saw, that you could see the future. But that was silly superstition, and he was not one for superstition, he was a dog of science. Science helped him solve cases, and it helped him prove that there wasn't anything supernatural out there. Science was the future, gazing at clouds was not, and he wasn't going to have any of it.

It was the biggest proclamation that he had made in a very long time, and honestly, the biggest amount of forward progress that he had made in doing anything with his life. Ultimately, it didn't matter though. Nothing did. He couldn't help himself, he glanced up at the skies to see what was out there.

There it was, a magnifying glass, right in the sky. It was pretty clear to Scooby Dum that the world was trying to tell him something, that his entire life was supposed to go in a certain direction. He was going to be a police dog, that was what he wanted to do and his life was going to go in that direction.

"No." He spoke out loud, startling a small rat that had been under the porch, sending it scurrying off into the woods. Scooby Dum was a dog of science, he was the one who proved that things were not what they seemed, he truly trusted science. He couldn't start listening to clouds. Clouds didn't talk.

Scooby Dum stood up and walked towards the end of the porch, and he looked up into the sky. Soon, it would be night, and then everything would change again. There were times that the night cleared everything up for him, he knew what he needed to do. He was going to find his way. He wasn't worthless, Mystery Inc proved that to him, but he was going to be someone important.

His cousin was always doing something impressive. He managed to get onto the TV with Vincent Van Ghoul, which Scooby Dum was pretty certain meant that he was a big shot Hollywood star. That was probably why Scooby Doo never returned his phone calls. He knew that he was using the phone correctly, he would knock it off the wall, use his nose to hit a button to turn it on and then he would yell "My Cousin" at the phone until the operator woman told him that his call couldn't be completed at this time. He missed his cousin.

Scooby Dum looked at the cloud. This time it looked like a dolphin. He had no idea just what in the world that would mean, maybe he would marry a dolphin? He didn't know any dolphins, but that could be what it meant. That couldn't work though, dolphins were mammals. Fate worked in odd ways.

Now:

The Mystery Machine was parked next to the sign that said "Now leaving Treefallen," with most of Mystery Inc standing next to it, peering just beyond the town limits. Fred was staring hard in front of him, trying to ignore what was going on just off to his side, Daphne was wrapped in Rhett's arms, she was leaning back comfortably into his chest. Velma was next to them, wrapping herself up in a jacket, as a cool wind blew across the road. Next to her was Ned, who had his camera up, looking out at the distance. "I'm tell you all," he said, "This is going to pick up something that we're missing." He frowned, "Thought I can't really see how."

The five of them waited in silence for what they were worried they were going to see, Shaggy and Scooby walking back. "Like, this is an interesting welcome to town."

"What happened?" Fred asked, confused. "We saw you go past the sign and then you disappeared. What did you see?"

"Well, we walked away and saw the sign that said that we were leaving town and then we saw the sign that said that we were entering town and the rest of you."

Ned pulled the camera back and looked at it as he watched the footage that he just shot. "Guys, that's not what happened."

Velma raised an eyebrow. "OK, see, that's what it looked like from our end. So you're saying that the camera saw something else?"

Ned nodded as he held the camera up. Everyone crowded around the tiny screen and they all looked as Shaggy and Scooby walked past the sign, went about twenty yards and then they turned around, and started to walk back, where the conversation they just had happened.

"Like, no way, man." Shaggy shook his head. "Like, Scoob and I didn't turn around. Did any of you all see that?"

Ned shook his head. "I didn't. When I saw it, it looked like you all just vanished and then started to walk back this way. I certainly didn't see you turn around. But we all saw what was on the film. Film doesn't lie."

Shaggy sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. "Like, something is majorly wrong here, man."

Velma nodded. "This is a big concern. I mean, normally when I can't trust my eyes, it's because I've lost my glasses. I wish that was the case now."

"So, what are we thinking?" Rhett asked. "Obviously, this has became our type of mystery whether we wanted it to be or not."

"Honestly, there was something off about that mayor. I mean, he just came up to us and wanted to shake our hands very badly." Fred looked over at the others. "What about you all?"

"There is just something about the smell that is bothering me," Velma said, "None of this seemed to be an issue until we noticed it."

"I think it was the man that I saw. I can't remember him well, and there seems to be something that's messing with our memories. I bet they are connected."

Ned nodded towards Fred, "I'll go with him."

"I'll go with Velma," Daphne said, "we girls gotta stick together!"

"I'll go with Shag and Scooby to make sure that they are safe," Rhett said.

"OK," Fred said with a sigh, "Let's split up and look for clues."

Then:

The skies were gray and dark, thunder filled the distant skies as he looked around the streets. There had been a string of burglaries, and he was completely ready to solve them, as soon as he knew what they were stealing or why. He was pretty sure that it was cars or caves or carrots, but it was something like that. And he was going to prove his worth to the police here and become the best police dog that ever lived. Granted, he was a little confused about why he was stationed out here, in the middle of nowhere.

He had heard that in Atlanta, there were tons of thefts, but why he was asked to come out here, in the middle of the woods, to stop this didn't make any sense. He remembered that he showed up and everyone laughed when he told them that he was there to become a cop. He wasn't sure why, maybe there was something funny on the TV before he came in? That must have been it.

There had been talks of a cat burglar, but that didn't make any sense to Scooby Dum, why would anyone want to steal cats? That was ridiculous, no one liked cats, why would anyone want to steal cats and then make sure that he would have multiple cats? That was stupid.

Dum stood up and walked along the road, when he saw something that was just off in the woods, it was a small lizard. He wasn't sure how smart lizards were, but he bet that they would be smart enough to steal a cat. Those lizards needed to pay!

He leapt into the woods and started to chase the lizard around the small path that the woods had, he knew that once he captured it, then he would've been able to solve the case once and for all. But the problem was that when he was chasing the lizard, he had lost his sight of the road, and he was pretty sure that he was supposed to be used to catch the thief. He would be in trouble when he was found out.

Well, except for the fact that once he had that lizard, the entire thing was going to be solved. Everyone would be proud of him, and he would be willing to bet that he would then be welcomed onto the roster. This all hinged on him getting the lizard. Plus he had to also make his future dolphin wife proud, and wouldn't she be proud when she found out about what he had done?

The lizard lead him on a very merry chase, but Scooby Dum was not a dog to be confused easily. He was able to tell which way that lizard was going to run, and he made a sudden move to cut him off. He was going to force the lizard to go back to the road, where there would be fewer places for him to hide. Scooby Dum knew exactly what he was doing.

The lizard was getting tired and started to slow down, but realized that it had no other options, so lizard and dog both ran into the roadway.

Dum didn't see the truck that was coming down the road as he chased after the lizard, but the driver saw him and swerved off the road, crashing into a tree. A police car pulled out, somehow Dum had missed the sirens. Two officers got out and quickly handcuffed the man. The second one smiled. "Looks like we caught our cat burglar!"

"Well look at that," one of the officers said as he motioned towards Scooby Dum. "The dog jumped out in front of the car and forced him to swerve off the road. He's a real hero."

"Scooby Dooby Dum!" Dum's reply came as he held the lizard up happily in the air, proud to be the hero of the story.

Now:

Rhett found himself walking behind Scooby and Shaggy, shaking his head slowly. Of all the odd things that he had experienced in his life, this was by far the oddest. A town you couldn't leave, eyes that couldn't be trusted, and now he was chasing a man he wasn't even sure existed? Life had certainly gotten interesting since he decided to join Mystery Inc. "Are you sure that we're even in the right area?"

They had found themselves on the side of the road that was cut into the woods, trees were on either side of them. Shaggy was looking at the ground, nodding his head slowly. "I've been doing this a long time, man, like, I know what I'm looking for. Don't forget, Scooby and I ran the Fearless Detective Agency."

Ned raised an eyebrow. "Was that before or after we met up at the schools?"

"After." Shaggy smiled. "It was just me, Scoob and Scrappy. We solved a lot of mysteries during that time. That was right before Scrappy went out West to see Yabba."

Rhett paused. "Just the three of you? But what about…" whatever he was going to say was cut off by Scooby jumping into the air.

"Rootprints!"

Rhett and Shaggy ran over to where the dog was motioning, and sure enough, they found a pair of footprints in the wet mud. "Well," Rhett said slowly, "Someone was certainly here."

Shaggy nodded. "And judging from the size, I would have to say it was probably a man, man." He paused. "Or, like a woman with really big feet."

Rhett looked up at the area that the footprints were pointing in. "They seem like they go into the road. From there, they could've gone anywhere. But I have a chance of figuring out where they came from." He motioned towards the forest. "I have my training, I'll see what I can find. Hold on, guys." Rhett went into the forest, leaving Shaggy and Scooby on the side of the road.

Shaggy nervously chewed on his tongue, desperately wishing that they had thought of bringing snacks with them. Those Scooby Snacks he was bribed with to go over the city limits had long worn off. "Like, did you hear something behind us?"

Scooby closed his eyes and shook his head violently. "Rope! Rothing!"

"Are you just saying that because we know what's going to happen when we turn around?"

"Rep!"

Shaggy gulped as he slowly turned around. On the other side of the road was…nothing. "Like, I'm totally surprised." He slapped Scooby on the back. "Like, nothing was there. I guess Fred was right, sometimes our imagination plays tricks on us."

"Reah! Ricks!"

Shaggy turned around and came face to face with a large man covered in mud, that was standing in the same patch of woods that Rhett had just walked into. "Like, Mud Monster!" Shaggy grabbed Scooby by the collar and pulled him, desperately trying to get his dog out of the the way of danger. "Like, let's get out of here, Scoob!"

The Mud Monster shook its head. "Guys, it's me. Rhett? I fell into some muddle at the bottom of the hill." He wiped his face clear, and the boys seemed to relax. "It's a friend." Rhett paused, as he saw someone else that had various colors of paint up and down his naked chest. "But that's not."

Then:

Being a cop wasn't exactly what he thought it would be. He was always in the police station, so that part made sense, but when he pictured being a police dog, he had always imagined that he would be out in field, catching bad guys and unmasking people, like he did when he was part of Mystery Inc. Instead, it involved a lot of sitting around the precinct and staring at the prisoners as they came in, scaring them into making sure that they did well. He didn't even do anything, and instead of catching bad guys, he was stuck on guard duty. He wasn't even sure what he was going to do if any of these guys made a wrong move, but it didn't matter.

Most of the time, he was ignored, except for one very specific point, whenever there was a cop show or a mystery show, most people were watching him instead of the show itself. Scooby Dum had spent his entire life watching cop shows and that had given him a very impressive ability; he was able to figure out the villain to any of the cop show in a matter of minutes. He was never able to get it wrong. It was amazing. Or so he was told.

"So, this dog can tell me any of the mysteries on TV?" One of the new cops asked pointing towards Dum.

"No doubt."

The rookie shook his head. "I don't buy it. There has to be something that explains it. Did he look online to see the spoilers or something?"

The older cop shook his head. "Nope. Even on new shows, he knows what's going on. It's amazing."

The rookie nodded slowly. "That sounds pretty good. I bet that he must be a great solver of mysteries out in public, huh?"

The older officer rolled his eyes and sighed.

"He's not?"

The older officer shook his head. "For as smart as the dog is when it comes to anything fictional, when it comes to him having to solve anything else, he's hopeless. He doesn't know a single thing. It's actually amazing, I've never seen anyone go from a complete Sherlock Holmes to a bumbling idiot in the matter of seconds like he does. It's eerie, honestly."

The rookie shook his head. "So what's the point of us keeping him around? I mean, he can't solve any crimes, he's not much of a guard dog, why do we do that?"

"You heard of the Cat Burglar of Stone Mountain?"

"Yeah, it's what we've all heard in the Academy. Something about a dog who…" he paused and looked over at Dum. "You mean, that's the dog? He managed to save so many people's life savings."

"Yep," the older officer said, "And the worse part is that he doesn't even understand what he did. He thinks we all love him because he caught a lizard."

"Man, he really is a dumb dog."

They both left, their conversation going away from Dum's sharp hearing, but he still knew that what they said was true, no one on the force really believed in him, he was a laughing stock, but he knew that all of that was going to change. He was going to become the brightest star that the police force had seen. Well, not an actual star, those things were made of like glass.

Now:

Daphne had forgotten exactly what going off with Velma to find clues entitled, going to the library and reading. A lot. Daphne wasn't stupid by any stretch of the imagination, but even she could only stay in a library for so long. She was bored, as Velma was on a computer that seemed like it was new and modern back around the turn of the century. "Gee," Daphne said as she leaned against the table that Velma was using, "Does this thing still have dial up?"

Velma smirked. "See, that's the problem with your generation, you are always impatient."

"Need I remind you that you are two years younger than me?"

Velma shook her head. "Ha! That may be accurate, but I am used to doing things with actual books. Did you know that it takes longer to read a book than to go through a web site where you can search for a key word?" She winked at Daphne who shook her head.

Daphne closed her eyes, her head was aching severely as it pretty much had been the entire time that they had been in town. "What exactly are you looking for?"

"The source of that smell I keep smelling. I just know that it's linked to all the strangeness that is going on."

Daphne shrugged. "I guess it could be the point. I'm not going to lie, this is really giving me the shivers."

Velma was quiet for several moments before she softly said, "Me too."

Daphne pulled out her phone and frowned at it. "I mean, everything seems stuck in time, we can't seem to leave, and we have no cell reception? I didn't even think there was a place in the US where you couldn't get cell reception."

"Depends on your carrier, mostly," Velma said as she smacked the computer. "You stupid piece of junk why won't you work?"

"Well," Daphne grinned, "The best way for you to deal with anything is certainly to hit it. Do you at least feel better?"

"No," Velma said, shaking her hand, "I don't. In fact, I feel worse. And stupid. Jinkies," she muttered, "I just want to be able to figure out what that smell is. I've tried everything I could think of."

Daphne raised an eyebrow. "Well, maybe we're breaking this down the wrong way. You've been searching for smells that you recognize that are famous, right?"

"Yeah."

"Why don't we try to describe the smell? Like, doesn't it smell a little familiar?"

Velma closed her eyes. "I swear Daphne, if you stick something disgusting under my nose, I am going to hit you."

Daphne snickered. "I won't. Promise."

Velma took a deep breathe and raised an eyebrow. "You're right. It almost smells like…"

Daphne closed her eyes and did the same. "Burning wood?"

Velma opened her eyes and stared at Daphne. "How much wood would have to be burning in order to permeate the entire town like this?"

"A lot. And how are we missing it? I mean, a fire that size should be seen for quite a while."

Then:

He had spent a long time trying to make sure that he had all of the facts, which proved hard when no one would talk about anything directly in front of him. But that didn't matter to him, he had managed to get the relevant information. All the police officers at the precinct were going to go on patrol, and they were all going to the same place. But they were also very careful to not mention any of this to the Chief. Dum knew why completely, the Chief was evil! All of them were going to meet at a restaurant, which was clever of them. No one would be able to hear them planning to take down the Chief, because there would be tons of conversation to cover their conversation. It was obvious that his friends were the smartest people in the world. And he was going to help them!

He snuck out after them, he was supposed to be watching…something, but honestly had had forgotten what it was, and it wasn't important. He was going to help his friends stop the Chief from his dastardly plans!

He had managed to follow them around to the restaurant and was startled to realize that he knew everyone at the restaurant. It was all of the police agents that he knew, their wives and children, what kind of weird bust was this going to be? Were they really going to use their children as pawns in order to stop the Chief from doing anything horrible? That was very brave of them. Dum had to admit that it seemed like bad parenting but they were certainly dedicated cops.

He had snuck into the restaurant in the best way that he knew how, he walked in the front door when someone else was opening it. They looked at him a bit confused, but he always believed that if you wanted to get into someplace without people asking too many questions, you walked into a place like this was exactly what you were supposed to do. "Dum, I thought you were supposed to," the man said, but Dum walked swiftly by him and disappeared into the kitchen.

This was where he differed from his cousin. Scooby Doo would've forgotten everything that he was supposed to do because of all the food. Dum loved food too, but he was not going to let this get in the way of his goals. He was going to spy on his friends and then catch the Chief red handed and save the entire police department. After that, they would have to let him have more responsibility.

He found an empty closet and listened. At some point, a cue would come. And it did. Everyone yelled out "Surprise!" and Dum knew that it was time for action.

Dum leapt out of the closet, and crashed into a cake? That seemed odd. And when he did it, the cake fell off the table it was sitting on and it fell onto someone that Dum knew quite well.

"Chief? You're a bad guy now?" Dum was confused to say the least. He looked up at the banners that said "Happy birthday Chief!" Dum didn't understand, why did they throw the Chief a birthday party when he was clearly the villain?

"Why are you not watching the prisoners?" The Chief demanded.

THAT'S what he was supposed to be doing. Now, it made all the sense. "I'm catching you!"

The rest of the police glared at him. This was supposed to be his big break, his chance to prove himself, and he abandoned his post. "You're fired!" Now what was he going to tell his dolphin wife?

Now:

Fred Jones was driving the Mystery Machine down the streets of town, searching desperately for a clue. "You know," Ned Burchill said next to him, "I don't think that we're really doing this whole 'sleuth' thing the correct way."

"I think we're fine. I mean, we have our suspect, now we're trying to track him down. Besides," Fred added with a hint of impatience, "I've done this a lot."

"Yeah," Ned said, as he steadied the camera to keep filming, "But the Mystery Machine doesn't exactly blend in. There's not a lot of vans out there like this, and the color doesn't really scream 'hide in plain site' y'know?"

"That's part of the plan," Fred said simply, "Because we have this van and it stands out so much, there is no way that anyone could think we would tail them. It would be way too obvious."

Ned frowned. "I don't think that we can trust the fact that our van is so obvious that it would be too obvious. I mean, isn't that the same thought process that leads to the idea that 'it's just crazy enough to work?' I mean, if it's crazy, it probably won't work, because it's y'know, crazy."

"You are worrying too much on this one, buddy." Fred grinned. "Besides, who knows what other people are seeing when they see the van. I mean, for all we know, the mayor isn't even real."

Ned shook his head. "Just because we can't trust our eyes doesn't mean we can't trust our other senses. There is definitely a smell going on around here, the girls are right about that one. And the mayor not look like what we saw, but someone certainly shook my hand, and it wasn't any of the rest of you. We're chasing after something real, that much I am sure of."

Fred nodded out the window. "There. I have found the mayor." He paused. "I think I'm going to park the van around the corner and we'll go on foot from here."

"Really?" Ned said with false concern, "And why is that?"

"I fear that the Mystery Machine stands out too much," Fred said evenly, "and he'll know we're following him."

"Ah yes," Ned said rolling his eyes, "Wish I had thought of that."

Fred chuckled and pulled off to the side. "How are we doing on the camera?"

Ned pulled back and rewound some of the footage. "We're certainly on a road, and there are a bunch of houses. I think everything we've been seeing can safely be assumed to be real."

"And the mayor?"

"He looks right too."

Fred looked over at the footage. "Can you zoom in on him?"

Ned nodded and did so. "What are we looking for?"

"Does his neck look odd to you?"

Ned looked at it. "A bit, almost like he was wearing..."

"A mask," Fred said. His face became determined. "I'm not sure what's going on here, but I know that he is involved somehow."

Ned glanced up, putting the camera back up. "Hey the girls are coming out of that library." He glanced at the camera. "Or someone's house. They were just chilling in someone's house."

Then:

Dum was back home with Ma and Pa, doing what he did normally, sitting on the front porch, watching the world drift by him lazily. He had tried to explain things to the Chief, but it turned out that every prisoner that was being held there had managed to escape because he didn't do what he was supposed to do. Apparently all of this was his fault and that was why he was fired. It was a very clever cover up that the Chief had going on.

"That does it," he muttered to no one, "I have learned my lesson. I am a dog of science and I won't be going for no of that mumbo jumbo like that cloud nonsense no more!" He shook his head angrily, as if there was someone there arguing with him.

He glared at a fly as it buzzed around him. He wanted to bite at it and make it go away, but it didn't matter. The fly wasn't hurting him, it was doing its job. It's job. His job. That was really the problem here, he had wanted nothing more than to be a cop his entire life, and when he had his chance, he fund that something got in the way of it. And the worse part was, that something was him.

He had spent his entire life being told that he was stupid, and that was never going to amount to anything. His owners never said that, and when he was with his friends in Mystery Inc, they never said that, but the rest of the world certainly did. It took a lot to overcome the vile feelings that the rest of the world was giving him, but he had thought that he was doing a good job of that. Maybe he wasn't. Maybe he was just too stupid to be useful to anyone else.

He shook his head as the bad thoughts entered his mind, he couldn't let others dictate who he was anymore than he would try to dictate who others were. He was occasionally brave, and he cared about his friends and family deeply. These were good qualities, and someone out there had to have use for them. He wasn't going to spend the rest of his life sitting on a porch, watching the world go by. No way, that wasn't the life for him. He wanted something more. Sure, being a cop didn't work the right way, but there had to be someway for him to get what he wanted out of life. It was all a matter of time and for him to find the right path.

But what was the right path, and how did you find it? Once, he tried to find it in the skies, but that was not going to work, he was a dog of science and it only lead to his failure. And he still hadn't met his dolphin wife. He wasn't going to try to do anything silly like that again, there wasn't a point to it.

He felt bold and he stood up, and felt a head rush. It may have been too fast. He didn't know what to do, so he lay back down. A new wave of depression fell over him, he couldn't even stand up properly without making a big problem of it. How was he supposed to go on with his life like this? Was he destined to be an idiot all the time? Was there anything else in life for him?

He glanced into the sky, hoping to find something that would show where his future lay. It was not a happy time for him, and he hated that he resorted to looking into the clouds for an answer, after all, he was a dog of science. What he saw confused him, it looked like an old telephone.

Dum was disheartened, he had no idea what to do with his life, and the clouds were borderline useless. That's what he got for betraying his principles. That's when the last thing he expected to happen did, the phone rang.

Now:

Velma rubbed her forehead as she watched the video. "Can I begin to tell you just how annoying all of this is for me. I mean, I can't trust my senses." She reached up and took her glasses off. "I may as well go ahead and walk around without these for all the good that they do me."

Ned looked over at Daphne and sighed. "So it looked like a library?"

"It really did. I even used a card catalog." She paused. "I wonder what in the world I was going through."

"Probably their mail," Fred said. "I don't think that's the important question though. We still haven't figured out what is doing all of this."

"Well, Shaggy and Rhett haven't came back yet. You think they found the guy they were looking for?"

"I'm sure," Ned said, "But the real question is, what did they actually find? They could be running from anything from a person to a deer. It seems like the only things that we can trust is each other and the Mystery Machine."

Velma sighed. "I really hate this."

"Velma, put your glasses on. You are talking to a stop sign."

Velma blushed and put her glasses on and turned to look at her friends. "So what exactly is the game plan?"

Fred leaned against the stop sign. "I have one, but I'm not sure it's going to be a great one." He reached into his pocket and held up a phone. "It all goes to this."

"Fred," Daphne said, "None of us have any connection here. It's like the cell towers don't go out this far."

Fred shook his head. "It's not the towers that I am thinking of, it's the cameras. We can use the video function of these to show us what's really going on out there. That should help us make sure that what we're seeing is real."

Daphne nodded as she pulled out her phone. "Works for me. We're still stuck with the other problem though. Do any of the rest of you feel like you're trying to swim through really thick water?"

"Kinda like you're at the dentist office and you just got the laughing gas?" Ned asked.

Daphne nodded. "Exactly that. I am worried about what else might happen. You say we can trust that we're with each other, but how can we be sure of that we're even talking to each other right now?"

Fred nodded, and shook his head. "I agree with you all. It's all very…disjointed. Sometimes, I don't feel like I'm myself anymore."

Velma nodded. "I agree. And I still think that it was the smell. It's like a perfume that is oaky?"

Fred shrugged. "I think Ned and I are still going to track down the mayor. I'm sure that it's him. There's something…familiar about him."

Velma nodded. "Then you boys go find the mayor. Daphne and I are going to find the source of that smell."

"Velma, before you leave…" Ned looked into her eyes and smiled slightly, before he reached down and pulled her to him. The smell flooded his sense like a deep perfume as he kissed her.


	10. Chapter 10: Mystery Solved?

Then:

Delilah Blake was tired. She had fought long and hard in order to get to the Calloway Military Academy. She was trying to make sure that she got her fair shake, but being a woman, it was harder than it should've been. She had to work harder to prove that she belonged, she had to work longer hours and she had finally gotten into the Academy because she called in a favor. She hated that, she hated that she had to ask for help to get in. She wanted to get in on merit, but instead, she had to lean on someone she knew from childhood, Shaggy Rogers.

Shaggy had became great friends with Rhett Herring, and Rhett had managed to get himself as the second-in-command, and he brought her in for an interview.

"This is very impressive," Rhett said as he looked over her application. "It says that you graduated Darrow University at the age of 13?"

Delilah nodded. "I did. I understand that you were friends with my sister, Daphne?"

Rhett smirked. "Friends may be pushing our relationship just a bit. Let's say that we knew each other."

"She hated you, didn't she?"

"With a fiery passion."

Delilah laughed. "That sounds like Baby Sis. I hope that you won't hold that against me."

"With this application, I don't think anyone could hold anything against you." He glanced down, "You were the head of the ROTC when you were there?"

"Yes, sir."

"And when you turned 18, you joined the marines?"

"I did."

Rhett placed the application on the desk and shook his head. "You are so much better than this place. I'm sorry that Colonel Calloway is a bit backwards when it comes to these sorts of things. But don't worry about it. Shaggy said that you were a good pick, and I trust him. We've really been tight over the last two years, in fact I was even…" Rhett stopped talking as if he was about to reveal something that he wasn't supposed to say. "Anyways, you are in."

Delilah smiled. "Glad to hear it. I assume that I will be under you?"

"No, actually," Rhett said, "You're taking my spot. See, I'm leaving. Shaggy convinced me to go back home. I'm 24, I hadn't been home in a while."

Delilah nodded. "I'm the opposite. I was home for a short while, but now I am ready to leave. I'm 28 years old, and I haven't really gotten a career started. I think that it's important to figure out who I am. So when are you gone?"

"I'll be here for a month. I'll train you on everything that you need to know, and then we'll be able to move you into the position. I do need to warn you though; your main rival is with the Miss Grimwood's School for Girls. Normally, Shaggy is one of your main rivals, but he's been here for two years and he's leaving too. I'll give you a rundown on the boys here. They are a good group, but you still need to be careful."

"I'm a marine, sir, I'm prepared for anything. Certainly, I can handle a few teenage boys."

"I have no doubt that you can," Rhett said.

Now:

Velma pulled back surprised. "I…uh..."

Ned rubbed the back of his head and looked. "I don't know what that was." He was shocked. He knew about his feelings for Velma, but there hadn't been one moment where she seemed to have any interest in returning those feelings. It was out of character for him to act on them in such a manner.

Velma shook her head. "Ned, it's OK."

He raised an eyebrow. "It is?"

She nodded. "Clearly, you're under whatever influence is affecting all of us. I know that wasn't indicative of who you really are."

Ned smiled. "Thank you." But it was indicative of his feelings. And he had to wonder, was he acting under the influence of whatever was going on? He couldn't be too sure, but then again, none of them could be sure of their own actions.

Fred raised an eyebrow. "So what are we going to do, gang?"

"Well," Daphne said, "Rhett and Shaggy are still out looking for their mystery man, and I think Velma and I are still trying to track down the source of the smell. We think it's a lot of wood burning. It shouldn't be too hard to track down."

Ned nodded. "That's fair. Fred still thinks the mayor is involved, so we're going to keep tracking him down."

"There is something oddly familiar about that man," Fred said, rubbing his chin, "But I can't figure out what that is."

Daphne looked over at Velma and raised an eyebrow. "I don't think he's wrong. It almost seemed like he knew who we were."

"Well, they probably have TV out here," Ned said. Then he shrugged. "Maybe. They don't seem to have cell signal out here, so it's hard to say. If they did though, Velma is pretty famous. Maybe he's just a fan?"

Velma shrugged. "Could be. But that still wouldn't explain why Fred thought he was familiar."

"Maybe he was at a book signing or something."

"What book signing? I've never written a book. Are you suggesting that he and I both went to get a book signed at the same time?" Fred looked confused at his friend.

"It's a theory." Ned said as he shrugged.

"Well, it is that," Velma said, "But I still think it's a smart idea for the two of you to follow him. We'll keep looking for the source of the smell. Meet up here again in two hours?"

Fred nodded and turned away. "You girls be safe."

Daphne scoffed. "You boys be safe."

Ned smirked. "That seems fair."

Daphne and Velma walked away. "Velma, how are we going to track down this smell? I can't get a figure on it. With that much wood, there has to be smoke, but we can't see it."

Velma held out her phone and turned on her camera. She held it up and waved it into the air. "It's over there. We have to follow our phones."

"Man," Daphne said, "My parents always said that I was on this too long. I wonder what they would say if they would see me now?"

Then:

Delilah knew that she was going to have a hard time fitting in at the school. She was going to a school that had never had a woman in it. Honestly, it was old hat to her. All her life, she had to work harder than everyone else in order to get half the recognition. Today was going to be no different. "Cadets!" She bellowed, "Front and center!"

The Calloway Cadets were exactly what she would've expected, a group of ragtag misfits who didn't really have anywhere else to fit in. It was to be expected. She had read all of their reports and she knew what to expect from them.

There was Baxter, he was the youngest, but he was the most likely to follow orders. One would've thought that him being the youngest and smallest that he would've been bullied, but he fit in well there. He was extremely well respected. Once she won him over, the rest would fall.

Grunt was the largest of the cadets, but his girth betrayed his strength. He wasn't the smartest of the group and Delilah realized that he was going to be the hardest one for her to gain the respect of.

Jamal Williams seemed like he was born for the military life. He followed orders, and he did as was expected from him, sometimes to his detriment. Following orders was important in the field, but if you couldn't come up with your own thoughts, you would find yourself in serious trouble.

Miguel was a genius, pure and simple, but he seemed ill fitted for life in the military. Delilah could understand that, she felt that way herself sometimes. Miguel's inventions were superb, and she felt that he would be able to be a real benefit to mankind down the line.

Tug Roper was the leader of the group, but Delilah knew that was by default. It wouldn't be too long before Baxter had taken over for him.

"Cadets! Today, we will be working on physical fitness. We shall start off light, with a simple lap around the school."

Grunt snickered. "I am sorry, Cadet, did you not understand my order? I can give it to you in smaller words, if you'd like."

Miguel looked nervous. "I understood you, ma'am."

"Now," Delilah started, "I gave you all an order."

"And if we don't, whatcha gonna do, call Colonel Calloway?" Grunt asked, smirking.

"Call Colonel Calloway?" Delilah shook her head slowly. "Heavens no, I won't have to do that. See, if I do that, then I'm turning you over to someone who is going to go a lot easier on you than I will. See, if you don't do the things that I tell you to, you will pay for it. For example, I think I'll clean the bathroom."

The boys looked at her confused. "I get it," She said, "I may have forgotten a detail. See, I plan on using one of your toothbrushes for the really hard to reach spots. But I won't tell you which one or when. And if one of you goes against my wishes, I will pick one of you at random to do it. If you screw up, you won't necessarily be punished. By me." She smiled. "And that is just the start."

The boys gulped as they saw something in her eyes.

"Now everyone give me five laps. If I see even one of you walking, then you all have to do another lap." She grinned. "And next time, I won't ask you so nicely."

Now:

Shaggy and Scooby took off running from the painted man, but then Rhett grabbed them from behind. "C'mon! You aren't going to start running from someone when you aren't even sure who they are, are you?"

"Like, of course we are!"

"Rit's rhat re roo!"

Rhett shook his head. "Well, I'm not. We're going to get to the bottom of this right now."

"Leave this place," the painted man hissed, waving a walking stick in the air. "I control the world in this place, with my walking stick….Bob."

Rhett looked over at Shaggy. "Did he just name his stick?"

"He did."

Rhett shrugged. "OK, Bob…"

"That is my stick's name!"

"Of course it is." Rhett sighed. "What is so important about your stick?"

"I use him to control others! That strange feeling you have in your head?" The painted man shook Bob violently at Shaggy and Scooby. "He controls your mind!"

Shaggy looked over at Scooby who shrugged. "Like man," Shaggy said, "I think it's time that we played fetch!"

Rhett smirked. "Shag, I think that sounds like a plan." Rhett ran forward, running shoulder first into the gut of the painted man. The painted man collapsed forward and Shaggy ran over and grabbed the stick.

"Like, go fetch, Scoob!" With that, he gave the stick a throw, and Scooby Doo ran towards it, jumping into the air and catching it in his mouth. Scooby ran into the woods, stick in his mouth, trying to put enough distance between him and the painted man to consider himself safe, though he started to doubt whether there was enough distance to make himself feel that way.

The painted man got around Rhett, and fell past Shaggy, reaching desperately for Scooby Doo. As he stumbled, he reached out, grabbing Scooby by the tail. Scooby wasn't about to let the stick go, but he bit down in frustration at having his tail pulled. The force was so much that the stick snapped in twain.

The Painted Man blinked slowly and looked around. "Where am I?"

Shaggy and Rhett exchanged glances. "You don't know what's going on?"

"I'm in the woods with a man covered in mud, a dog, and I'm covered in paint. I'm not at all sure what's going on, but I really need someone to explain it."

Shaggy shrugged. "Like, I don't really think that I can. This town is really odd, man. Like, one minute you think you're leaving and then boom, you are right back where you left off."

The man looked around confused. "Someone else explain it?"

"I'm not really sure that I can," Rhett said, "My friend is right, something odd is going on." He motioned to the remains of Bob, "You stated that was the secret to everything that was going on around here. Then when it was broken, you seemed to snap out of it."

Shaggy smiled. "Well, on the plus side, I'm thinking pretty clearly for the first time since we got here.

Then:

"You know," Colonel Calloway said as he came from the main building, "I was against hiring you."

"Well," Delilah said as she crossed her arms and glared at him, "You certainly know how to make your employees feel good about themselves. Why did you even hire me?"

"Major Herring insisted upon it. He told me that what we needed around here was a woman's touch. He said that you were tough enough to hang with this group. He was right."

Delilah smirked. "Yeah, you're doing a great job selling this, you know that, right?"

"I saw how you handled those boys. You did a good job. I haven't seen them actually interested in anything in a while."

Delilah rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, they only other girls that they have around them are at another school. A bunch of hormone laden teens are going to pay more attention to me than anyone else you would've hired."

Calloway smiled. "I can understand that. But I think they listened to you about everything else. They respect you, Major."

Delilah nodded slowly. "I would like to think so. I've had to work twice as hard as anyone else to get to where I am today. I want you to remember that."

"I don't think I will ever forget it." He smirked. "Especially if you manage to coach them to win the big volleyball game."

Delilah laughed. "I guess it's pretty clear what your priorities are, isn't it?"

Calloway shrugged as he walked away from her. He leaned against a fence, looking out over the swamps that separated his school from his rival's. "Maybe it's not."

Delilah raised an eyebrow. "OK, if that's not everything, then what else is there in life for Colonel Calloway?"

"Call me, Clarence."

"Wow, your parents really loved alliteration, didn't they?"

Calloway shook his head. "I know right?" He paused. "Wait, isn't everyone of your sisters named something that starts with a D?"

"I don't really see how that's at all relevant to anything we've been talking about."

Calloway laughed. "Yeah, I can tell. It's utterly unrelated."

"So, Clarence," Delilah said, "What other priorities do you have in your life?"

Calloway sighed. "I'm just going to say it, Major. Would you like to have dinner with me?"

Delilah paused for a moment. "I…are…you mean like a date?"

Calloway turned red. "It was stupid. Forget I even said anything. I'm your superior. It wouldn't be right."

Delilah looked at him for a moment. "You know, I will have dinner with you, under one condition."

"What is your condition, Major?"

"You finally start calling me, Delilah."

Calloway smiled. "I think I can do that."

Now:

Daphne and Velma had been following the smoke trails that they had seen using the camera and was amazed by what was actually going on in the town. The people who seemed happy and content was revealed for what they were really were, a group of really confused folk, walking around, trying to figure out what had happened to their sleepy, little town.

"Well," Daphne said, "We are getting closer to the smoke, that much is given." She paused. "It does make you question something, though, doesn't it?"

"Why are we able to see the same thing, when it doesn't look like anyone else in town is able to do that?" Velma said, keeping her eye on the camera.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking that," Daphne said.

"I've thought about it," Velma said, "And I think I have the answer for it."

"Well, have at it."

"I think that whatever caused all of this had to hit us all at the same time, or at least close enough to it that we can still register each other."

Daphne shrugged. She wasn't sure that she bought that theory, but there wasn't any other ideas that she had that could answer this question. Ultimately, it didn't really matter. They walked in silence, following their cameras, as it lead them into the woods. The thick, dark smoke hung in the air, like a beacon, calling for them.

"Someone had to have started this fire on purpose," Daphne said, "There is too much smoke here to make it something that accidently happened, but it's also contained, which means that someone had to control it, at least initially or it would've spread out of control."

Velma smiled. "That's pretty observant of you. That assumes the wind doesn't rile it up, but pretty good. Where did you learn that from?"

"Nature rangers!" Daphne said proudly. "Mom didn't want me to join. She said that the outside was just a large toilet that wanted to eat me."

"Wise woman," Velma said with a grin. "Well, you are right. But the smoke is getting thicker, I think we're getting closer to the source."

Daphne nodded and pushed through a thicket. "Found it."

Velma joined her, and saw a huge plume of black smoke coming out of a hole that had been clearly dug into the ground. Carefully peering into the depths, she gasped. "It's Terrorwood! I should've known."

"I have never heard of Terrorwood before, what is it."

"It's a wood, that when burned has been known to cause hallucinations. But it isn't native here, someone had to have found it and brought it here." She started to count on her fingers. "This has to be at least half of the world's total population in this hole, why would anyone do this?"

Daphne shrugged. "Maybe to mess with us. But I know how to fix it." She pointed towards a massive excavator that was sitting there. "I bet anything that was used to dig that hole."

"Well, if either of us knew how to…" Velma started but she blinked in surprise when she heard the sound of the giant machine starting up, and it started to grab a giant dirt pile. "Where did you learn to drive one of those?" It didn't matter. As soon as the dirt was added to the pile and the smoke disappeared, her head started to clear.

Then:

Delilah Blake was utterly surprised by the way that her life gone. She didn't have any real hope for the date with Calloway, but it actually went really well. And the next date also went really well. In fact, every date they had went really well for a year. And now it was time for their first anniversary.

She was worried that once it became public, that everyone had assumed she worked her way up the hard way would change their minds, but she was surprised to find that everyone was very supportive of them. She had initially thought that would give her happiness to her face but talk bad about her when she wasn't around, but that wasn't the case. In fact, everyone seemed to really be happy for them. She assumed that it was because they all loved Calloway and wanted him to be happy. It didn't really matter, he made her happy and she realized that this was the missing piece of her life.

She was standing in front of the mess hall, and couldn't help but smile. Any other woman would've been upset that for their anniversary they went to the mess hall of the school, but she wasn't any other woman. She wanted this night to be part of who they were, and together, they realized that this was their life. This was the exact place that she wanted to spend this night at.

Calloway showed up, but he wasn't wearing his uniform. It felt odd to see him like this, even for their dates, it seemed that the only thing that he ever wore was his military uniform, so to see him like this, dressed in a tuxedo just felt off to Delilah. But she couldn't help but think that he looked rather handsome in it. "Good evening," he said as he held his hand out to hers.

She grabbed his hand and smiled. "Good evening, Colonel." He winced at the formal title and she laughed, kissing him on the cheek. "What is the plan for tonight?"

"I just thought that we would walk around the grounds. Some fresh air would do us some good."

"It's true," Delilah said, "Here on the grounds, with more land than buildings, fresh air is basically a premium."

Calloway grumbled, "Right," under his breath and started to walk, leading her towards the swampland that was between his school and the Grimwood School.

Delilah raised an eyebrow and started to make several notes. The first was that Calloway wouldn't look her in the eyes. The second was that he was sweating and she didn't think that the change of attire would've had that level of affect on him. The last thing that she noticed was that he couldn't stop shaking. "Are you feeling OK?"

"What?" Calloway nearly jumped when she spoke. "Yes, yes, of course I am!"

Delilah frowned. "You don't have to yell at me."

Calloway looked like a puppy that was just told it was bad. "I'm sorry. But no, I am fine."

Delilah couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. "What's going on?"

Calloway sighed and stuck his hand in his pocket. "I don't even know how to say this." Delilah was concerned, but before she could voice that concern, Calloway dropped to one knee, taking his hand out of his pocket, showing a diamond ring. "Will you marry me?"

Delilah smiled broadly. "Of course I will!"

Now:

Ned and Fred were following the mayor closely, looking at him through the camera. "I don't know, Fred," Ned said as he kept the camera honed. "I still gotta say he looks the same. I don't think his outer appearance has been changed due to whatever is affecting the rest of the things we're seeing."

Fred shook his head. "I'm telling you, something isn't right about that man."

"I'll give you that it's odd for a man to want to shake the hands of every single person that he meets in town, but he's a politician. Maybe glad-handing has become such a second nature to him that he wouldn't have thought about the fact that we can't vote for him? Maybe he has aspirations to be the governor and doesn't want to make any potential voters angry with him?"

"Maybe he's a man in a mask?"

Ned shrugged. "I mean…yeah, sure, that's also an option. I've seen some odd stuff in my time with Velma, but never a dude pretending to be another living dude, mostly just ghosts and ghouls and what have you."

"I'm certain that he's a man in a mask," Fred said evenly.

"Oh…oh OK," Ned said, "What's our end game here, Fred?"

"We're going to set up a trap to catch him."

"So…we're going to try to catch the, so far as we know, lawfully elected mayor of the town that we are in, because you believe that he is a man wearing a mask?"

Fred looked over at Ned. "Do you have any qualms about that?"

Ned paused for a moment. "Y'know, not as many as I think I should. I can't believe that I am going to say it, but what kind of trap do you think that we should go for?"

Fred placed a hand on his chin. "I think something basic may be in line for this." He quickly outlined a plan that did seem simple enough. Ned honestly felt that it might have been too simple.

Ned's part of the plan was easy enough. He was managed to get in front of the mayor and waved at him. The mayor stopped in his walking and waved back, looking slightly confused. Ned was also confused, so he felt that it was a fairly even split. That was when Fred's part of the plan came into play.

Fred leaped from behind a nearby house, and launched a net into the air, crashing it down onto the mayor. "Got him!"

"Unhand me!" The mayor cried in a way that Ned assumed any rational person would've done if this were to happen to them. Honestly, Ned had assumed there would be more cursing.

"Now it's time to see who the mayor really is!" Fred said with gusto.

'Now it's time to see how much jail time I'm really going to get,' Ned thought with trepidation.

Fred nudged Ned's gut and pointed towards the mayor's neck. "See that," Fred said proudly.

"He has wrinkles?"

Fred shook his head. "Nope. His skin doesn't match right here. He's wearing a mask." Ned truly hoped that was true. He waited with baited breath as Fred reached down, grabbed his hair and pulled.

Then:

It was two in the morning when Delilah finally gave in to her impulses and rolled over in bed, grabbing her phone. The dim light fell onto her face and she sighed, as she looked at her various social media. This was the same thing that she had been doing for months.

"Sweetheart?" Calloway rolled over and looked at her, his eyes were blurry and he wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep, but it was clear that something was bothering his fiancée. "What's wrong?"

Delilah didn't want to bother him with her little issues, but she knew what he would say if she didn't mention it. That worrying about her was his job. He loved her and that meant that he cared about the things that she cared about. She sighed as she tried to put her thoughts out properly. "I'm worried I'm in a rut." That was probably not the best way for her to put it.

"I'm sorry?"

Delilah shook her head. "Not with us. I'm very happy with us." She grabbed his hand reassuringly, "But is this where my life was supposed to go? Is that really my life? A teacher?"

"What else do you want?" Calloway stared into the eyes of his soon to be bride. "You know I will support you in anything."

Delilah smiled broadly. "I really do appreciate that. I am not sure what we are going to do." She turned to look at Calloway. "Do you think that this sounds odd?"

Calloway shook his head. "I always assumed that something like this was going to happen. Think about it. You graduated college when you were 13. Do you even realize how amazing that is?"

She smiled. "You have to say that."

"Do I?" Calloway shook his head. "I don't. Then you went to the army and moved up the ranks, despite the fact that it's harder for you as a woman to accomplish your goals. And then you forced your way in here, which has never had a woman in it before and found your place here. Love," he smiled, "You were always a woman who wanted to move onto the next big thing in life. I know that you were never destined to stay here forever. You are just ready to find what's next for you." He looked over at her. "Will you let me be part of it?"

She smiled broadly and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him. "I couldn't imagine anyone else I would want on the journey with me." She paused. "But you wouldn't be able to go on the journey with me, would you?"

"Not until summer," he said softly. "Is that going to be a deal breaker for you?"

She shook her head. "Not at all. I'm not about to let you go now that I've finally found you."

He grinned. "I love you."

"I love you too."

Calloway got out of bed and went to bathroom. Delilah was distracted by something from her phone.

"That's odd," she said looking at her phone.

"What is it?" Calloway asked, popping his head out of the bathroom.

She held up her phone. "I'm getting a phone call."

Now:

"Harry the Hypnotist!" Fred said with a smile. "I knew it!"

"I have no idea how you could've known this," Ned said. "I don't even know who this guy is."

"He's an old foe of ours," Velma said as she walked up to them from behind. "And he's been planting the terrorwood."

Harry looked at Fred with a confused look on his face. "What's terrorwood?"

"That's not what caused it at all," Shaggy said, coming out of the woods, "Like, he hypnotized this dude into thinking he had a magic stick. I think the stick had some sort of, like, radio that drove us all crazy."

Rhett nodded. "When we looked at it, it wasn't wood inside. It certainly looks like some sort of radio."

"What guy?" Harry asked.

The gang seemed to be confused for a moment, as doubt started to creep into their minds. "Harry, what are you doing here?" Daphne finally had the clear mindedness to ask.

Harry grumbled, as he tried to get out from the net. "I thought I could come here and take over a small town. Hypnotize them all into making me mayor and then I could live the high life. I knew I was going to be able to get past most of you." He shot a glare at Scooby. "But I was worried that your darn dog would get a good whiff of me and ruin it all."

Scooby growled. He had smelled something off about the mayor when they met. If only he would've been able to put it together faster, they may have wrapped things up sooner.

One of the local police had stumbled over, the months long fog being lifted from his head. He heard a confused explanation of the events, but what mattered the most was when he called into the precinct and found that Harry had been wanted in numerous states for theft. It didn't take long before Harry was read his rights. He had the right to remain silent, but he chose to wave that right when he said, "And I would've gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for you meddling kids!"

There was a silent moment between the gang, but they all seemed to break into smiles at once. Well, there was one exception. "Like, we did it!"

"Jeepers!" Daphne cried out, "That was super exciting!"

Ned grinned. "I have to admit, that was certainly something else. It's almost funny…"

"That's not very funny," Rhett said with a grin.

"Good work gang!" Fred said with a smile. "Another mystery solved!"

"Scooby Dooby Doo!"

Velma wasn't satisfied. The way that the other people in town were acting, they had solved the mystery. Treefallen was saved, but how? Did she and Daphne solve it when they got the terrorwood? Was it Shaggy and Rhett? Fred and Ned? None of the above? They had solved the mystery, but which mystery was it? Why did she feel that she solved the mystery that she was supposed to solve? She would get the answers that she needed, but they wouldn't come for years. Now, there were other mysteries for her to solve.

To Come:

A thump was heard upstairs, and he pulled the blankets tighter over him, his head barely visible between them and the pillows. "It's not real," he told himself. He had called numerous experts into his house and they couldn't find anything, but Vincent Van Ghoul was no fool, he knew that he was being haunted. But no one was willing to believe him. He knew whom he needed, he needed to get in touch with Mystery Inc, but there was only one member he was able to find. He had made the call, but he wasn't sure that it was ever going to lead anywhere. He wasn't ready for this, but it was time for a sequel to his Thirteen Ghosts.

Ghosts would've been nice for the five girls that were huddled together in front of a sign that read "Fearless Detective Agency." They had heard that their favorite teachers had gone off and formed this after they had left. They remember when they left. Shaggy had mentioned that he missed his old life, that he wanted to remember what it was like to be a detective and that his Uncle Fearless was going to be able to help him get back to his roots. They couldn't imagine that it had gone very well for them, Shaggy never really seemed like they type that should've been a detective. Scrappy, maybe he was someone that could work, but he was too reckless. Shaggy and Scooby were cowards, but maybe they had a keen mind for the job. These girls didn't know, all they knew for certain was that they needed to find their favorite teachers, or things were about to get bad for them.

Things were getting bad as Burt looked out over the lake at Camp Little Moose. Something was up, it seemed as if every camp story that he had every told was coming to life. The Woodsman, the Fishman, the Specter of Shadow Canyon; all of them were being reported around the camp. There wasn't anything really odd about that, the campers always managed to hear the stories and they were always seeing these things, but it wasn't just the campers who saw it, the councilors did too, and one of them had written home to all the parents. Most of the campers were gone from the camp, only a few remained, and Burt was worried he was going to have to close the camp. His favorite camper may have been able to turn all of this around, but he had to get in touch with Fred Jones.

She needed to get in touch with Velma Dinkley, or she was going to die. Things were dark in her world, they had been ever since she was kicked out of Mystery Inc, but now she needed them more than ever. She ran down a corridor, and dove past a door. She pushed herself against the wall, and peered into the room. She wouldn't have believed that her life was going to go this way, skulking in the shadows, training only in lies. Being a spy had sounded very romantic, but she didn't really think about what that meant for her. She could never trust anyone; no one could know what she was doing and she was in danger at every turn. But she knew one person that she could trust no matter what, Velma Dinkley was going to be the reason that she was going to survive. Of course, if she didn't find her, she was going to be in hot water.

Hot water filled the bathtub of Nancy Chang as she glared into the mirror. "I am going to get even with Fred Jones. He humiliated me!" She angrily dropped a few bath salts into the water and watched the bubbles foam up as the water swirled around them. "He never loved me. I was always the second choice. Always." She closed her eyes and took a calming breath. She had to make sure that kept a cool mind. After all, if she didn't, how would she be able to kill Daphne Blake?

Daphne Blake had been one of his best friends. He had known all the members of Mystery Inc, of course, but he was closest to Daphne. Fred and Velma had spent an entire summer away from him, and he had only grown closer to Daphne. In many ways, he was closer to her than he was his Uncle Scooby. Heck, after they quit the Fearless Detective Agency, he went off with his Uncle Yabba. None of it mattered now. He left the West behind, and he left Fearless behind and Mystery Inc had left him behind. He was grown now, but life seemed to have lost all sense of purpose. What was he supposed to do now? Just when his life felt at it's lowest, something was changing for him. Scrappy didn't realize it, but there was still someone that believed in him, someone that wanted Puppy Power still.

Power was a funny thing, as the three young women from Oakhaven had recently found out. They were certain that they were about to get their big time record deal, and suddenly it vanished. It seemed like it was around the same time that ghost started to show up. Normally, this would've been the point in time when people started to run away like a crazy person, this time it didn't happen. In fact, the ghost was part of the tourist campaign and the town had shirts made up with ghost's image on it. Now, it would've been insane for them to say that they ghost had stopped them from getting their shot at stardom, but something had stopped it. And these girls were going to solve this case. They were pretty certain that everything was going to go right again once they stopped the Witch's Ghost.

A ghost was not going to scare away Beau Neville. He had a map on the table in front of him, and he held a compass in his hand. He honestly had no idea what the point of the compass was, but he felt pretty certain that he if he was going to be serious about finding the treasure of Morgan Moonscar, then he had to be properly prepared. It seemed like there was an island that he needed to get on, but he ran into a slight issue, the island was private property. He didn't want to sneak on, he had no idea how long it would take for him to get to it, but he was sure he would be caught. It didn't matter, all he had to do was convince the owner of the island to hire him and he would have totally access, whenever he needed it. There was just one slight problem; he wasn't even totally sure who owned the island yet.

Who owned your legacy? It was a question that Maggie "Sugie" Rogers often asked herself. She didn't really wonder about her own legacy, mostly because there didn't seem to be one. She was wondering about her brother's legacy. Shaggy had been seen as a coward, but what about all the brave things that he did? How many heroic acts did it take to overcome others opinions? He was also seen as a lay about, but he did have several jobs since high school, and he even ran his own detective agency, for as well as that went on. But when did those achievements outweigh perception? And what happened when your own perception of yourself was negative? Sugie really didn't think much of her own life. She had a wonderful husband, and she loved him very much, but she still was worried about her own legacy.

Legacy was a tricky thing. This other woman often thought about Shaggy Rogers, but for very different reasons than his sister did. She was going to find him again, and eventually she was going to drop the bombshell that may change things for him. She didn't want to radically change his life, but she knew him well enough to know that people didn't really understand him. He was a private guy, but once they knew the truth, he may have lost that forever.

Forever was exactly what Madeline Dinkley was looking for. But she was looking for it in all the wrong places. She wasn't sure what her future was going to be, but after trying to become an organic farmer, she was certain that it wasn't going to be selling produce on a roadside. She sighed as she sat down, looking at the computer, trying desperately to find her calling in life. Her sister had it easy, she had been solving mysteries her entire life, since before Madeline was born. And while she had recently been taken off the air, Maddie knew that Velma was going to be back on top again, that's what the "best" Dinkley sister always managed to do. Madeline wasn't sure what her destiny was, but she was certain of one thing, once she found it, she was going to prove herself to everyone.

Proving himself was something that Chuck Magnum always wanted to do. He had been in Fred Jones' shadow his entire life, and now, he had a plan. This was going to be the first time that he was able to show his old friend, Fred, just who was boss. He didn't want anyone to think that he was trying to stop his friend from succeeding, but Chuck was fine with him becoming a friendly rival with Fred. But there was just one slight problem- he didn't actually rival him. Chuck had a plan though; it was going to work too. And for once, he was going to be out of Fred's shadow. Camp Little Moose was going to be ancient history, seeing Fred's name in the paper over and over and over was going to be a thing in the past. People may not know who Chuck Magnum was, but they were going to learn his name soon.

His name was confusing. Heck, a lot of things for Jonathan Wellington Muddlemore were. His friends called him Mudsy, but his backstory was one that defied belief, and he was actually surprised that so many people did believe it. His cover was that he was the ghost of an American Revolutionary solider who died in a grandfather clock. That was hogwash, of course, ghosts weren't real and everyone knew that. But criminals were a superstitious lot, and Mudsy used that against them. Stage makeup and some nifty special effects gave him the appearance of a ghost. And that was really the last interesting thing about him and his friends. They had joined the Mystery Teen fad, but they never really seemed to get any publicity. But now that Mystery Inc was back in business, it was time for Mudsy to get Funky again.

Funky was the music that the Neptunes had been accused of playing. Jabberjaw was perfectly fine with that, but then again, he was a talking shark. He also didn't seem to realize that when people accused the music of being "funky" they were not giving him a compliment. His band, the Neptunes, had come across a gimmick that stuck well with them, initially; they were from the future. They were from the year 2076 and they came back in time to play some good music. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, every band needed a gimmick they decided, but it didn't dawn on them the fact that their drummer was a talking shark should've been enough. They too had joined the teen mystery-solving craze, but they had fallen out of practice. The Neptunes still did some shows here and there, but they were seen as a blast from the past

A blast from the past was exactly what Captain Caveman was going for. Much like the others, he had a gimmick as well; he was a Caveman who was thawed out in current days. In reality, he was just a man in a costume with some very clever gadgets in his club. But that wasn't enough for him or the Teen Angels to stay in the public perception. But that didn't matter, he had heard rumblings that some of the other groups were getting back into the game, and if that was true, then he wanted in on stopping some plots.

They were where the plot began, or at least they had been, once upon a time. Life had brought about a series of interesting changes for the group; they were as popular as they ever had been, at least as a rock band. But they didn't want to just be a rock band, they wanted to be someone who could solve crimes as well, but they never seemed to have time for it anymore. They traveled from town to town, getting their names cheered, but they never really managed to get what they wanted, they just wanted to be involved in this or that. But they were stuck, they had thought about trying to get out of the business, but every time, their manager told them that they had no time for purrs or pats and they had to go and play a neat, sweet, groovy song. But they longed for a point in time in their life, where people could watch the good guys win.

Watching the good guys win was always his motto, though lately, the amount of times that the good guys actually won was limited. Heck, the amount of times that the good guys even participated was rather low. They were still out there, trying to solve mysteries but they never seemed to find them. Or if they did find them, the police was always there and told them to stop, because they were professionals. The Speed Buggs were professionals. After their high school days, they actually opened up a PI service, but very few people felt that a dune buggy was the correct call for not drawing attention to themselves. Lately, all they really did was check to see if people's boyfriends were cheating on them. It turned out that they were. Every time. It was starting to get boring for them.

His life had gotten boring ever since his nephew had left. His best friend, Deputy Dusty, has still managed to get his share of crime in Tumbleweed County, but it wasn't very exciting. Someone ran a stop sign here, someone illegally parked there, but the sort of stuff that he did when Scrappy was with him just didn't happen anymore. They still went out, but life was boring. Not that he minded it, when he was in random danger every week, he was sure he lost a few years off his life, but still, there were times that he longed for more. But what he didn't realize was that something was coming. As the wind blew across the desert, it was blowing in a wind that carried with it, it's own sort of violence. No matter what he was used to, no matter what had come before, Yabba Doo was not going to be ready for what came next.

She was certainly ready for what was going to come next, but for Janet Nettles, whatever came next was certainly going to be one thing, dull. She lived in Crystal Cove, and while there were some serious changes that were coming to her town, she was going to end up missing them. Her time was coming, but it wasn't going be for quiet some time. Even though she really wanted to be part of something bigger, it wasn't going to happen for her. That wasn't due to someone else trying though. She was in love, but she had to know what came outside of this town. She had just hoped that the man that she had pledged herself to understood that.

They understood exactly what their lives had become. They wanted to prove themselves, and boy, did they have a way to do that. There was murder coming down the pike, and they knew who was going to be murdered, but no one would believe them. They didn't know why or where or how, but they certainly knew who. Now they had to find the one person who could help them. The Calloway Cadets were camped out, and the rain came down on their tents. As the thunder crashed around them, they pulled their blankets tighter around them.


	11. Episode 11: Ships in the Night

Then:

Sugie Rogers knew that her big brother was going to protect her; after all, that was his job. Shaggy was always going to be there for her, deep in her heart of hearts she knew that. Well, he was always going to be there for her unless she made a mess in her diaper. He always managed to avoid being around for that. But that wasn't the case this time. He was off on another mystery with his friends in the Scooby Doo Detective Agency. They were going to beat some bad guy and stop their schemes. Sugie didn't understand a lot about the world, but she did know that much.

Sugie was crawling towards her favorite rattle. She knew that she was supposed to be too old for rattles, those were baby toys and she was becoming a big girl, but she didn't care, she only cared that the rattle soothed her. Some kids had a stuffed animal, but she had a rattle. It was perfect for her. It made noise and was colorful. It was all that she needed.

Her rattle was slowly coming towards her, crawling was a drag, but she was too shaky on her feet to walk very well, and she needed that rattle right away. It wasn't going to shake itself. But imagine how amazing it would be if it could shake itself! But Velma would probably take it from her to conduct science experiments on. And Sugie was never allowed to play with any of Velma's toys. Freddy would probably say that it was haunted, and he would want to take it to a psychic. Daphne would probably make fun of the color.

Sugie didn't care about any of that; she only cared about the rattle right now. Maybe once she had it, she would be able to talk to Scooby and they could play her favorite game, hide the rattle. She would hide her rattle and watch as Scooby sniffed it out. It was the perfect game and then after they played, Scooby would lick her face and then she would lick his face back. It was perfect.

She got distracted for a second by an interesting shadow that she saw on the ground. It was coming from outside and it looked like a person. Or a flamingo. Sugie wasn't sure what those looked like, but she was told that she would see one at the zoo. She had spent most of the day imagining what it would be and the shadow was exactly what she thought it would look like. But she knew it wasn't a flamingo, it was just an interesting looking shadow, and that was it.

She gave up looking at the shadow and started to go back to the rattle. This was going to be the best!

Just as Sugie reached for the rattle, from the open window a hand shot in and grabbed the rattle. Sugie jerked backwards and gasped. The figure was huge to her, but everyone was to her. She may have been wrong. It may have been a child who took it. But a bigger kid. The person who grabbed the rattle started to laugh and ran off into the woods.

Sugie couldn't help herself, she started to cry. This drew her brother in from another room. "Like, what's the problem?"

"Wattle!" She wailed, pointing out the window where the figure vanished into some woods.

"Like, someone stole your rattle?" Sugie nodded pathetically, but Shaggy reached down and hugged her. "Don't you worry, Sugie, the Scooby Doo Detective Agency is on the case!"

She loved her big brother.

Now:

It had been a few days since the gang had somehow solved the mystery of Treefallen, though there were several questions that they all still had. Now, they were traveling along the roads, following the advice of Mr. F. "So I'm telling you all, we need to be able to solve the mystery of this haunted pirate ship."

Velma had long since given up trying to understand this aspect of her life. She was just talking to the Mystery Machine's radio and that was what it was. She had a real suspicion about who Mr. F really was, but she wasn't ready to share it with the rest of them. "A vanishing pirate ship?"

Mr. F's voice on the other end laughed. "Yeah, I know it sounds odd."

"We were just in a town that wouldn't let us leave and we're talking to a radio in a van," Ned said evenly, "I think we left where we could call a vanishing pirate ship 'odd' a long time ago."

Daphne sighed. "I guess that means that we're going to be going to the library first?" She glanced over at Velma. "You know, they have all sorts of knowledge on our phones now. We don't have to go to the library for every bit of research that we do."

"Oh I know," Velma said, "But it doesn't compete with the smell of old books, now does it?"

"Dusty old books," Daphne muttered, "You know me so well."

"Ruh roh," Scooby said as he looked out the window.

Shaggy sighed. He knew that when his best friend said something like that, Shaggy was going to scream. He was wrong this time, as he very calmly said, "Like, I don't think our first stop is gonna be the library."

Fred didn't bother to look over. "Why are we not going to the library first?"

"Pull over," Rhett said, his face was in awe. He had seen a lot of amazing things in his life, but outside of a movie, he had never seen what was going on outside at that exact moment.

Fred pulled over, and looked around. Ned had started to record, and when Fred looked out the side window, he could understand why. Of all the things he had seen, he had never seen a pirate ship emerge from the water, water dripping off of it. "Wow." He felt like he should've said something else, but he couldn't think of another thing to say, so he simply said, "Wow," again and hoped that it sufficed.

Ned simply covered the entire thing. It was bright, and he was impressed with the entire thing. "Guys, how are we going to deal with this? Somehow, this seems way out of our league."

Rhett nodded slowly. "Velma, I really hope you have a good idea of what to do about this."

"Jinkies," came the reply.

"Yeah," Rhett muttered, "That's what I was going to say."

The Mystery Machine was silent as the ship started to fall back into the water, and soon disappeared from view. Ned slowly turned the camera off and turned to look at his friends. "Well," he said evenly, "If that shot doesn't convince a network to hire us then nothing will."

Velma didn't say anything, her face was pale and she had to wonder, just what were they going to do about that?

Then:

It was years later and Sugie had just turned ten. She had been watching her brother grow over time and was very impressed with how he had came into his own. He was a member of Mystery Incorporated now, long ago having left behind the name Scooby Doo Detective Agency, but he was having an awkward summer. He was given a choice that he was struggling with, was he going to do a TV show for the summer?

He was struggling hard with it, and had turned to someone that he trusted for sage advice. He had chosen wrong. "Why wouldn't you want to do the show?" Sugie asked confused.

Shaggy sighed. "I'm just really worried. Fred and Velma isn't here, and I feel like I'm cheating on them, y'know?"

Sugie raised an eyebrow. "Nope."

Shaggy smiled. "Like, you're young. See, we all have this mystery thing going on, and I think we all really dig it. But this opportunity is huge. Like, do you know how much I love Vincent Van Ghoul?"

Sugie smirked. She knew. It was impossible to go into Shaggy's room and not know that Van Ghoul was his favorite actor; DVDs lined the shelves, posters were hanging on the wall as if they were wallpaper, various merchandise was on his dresser, including a limited edition clock that had Vincent calling out the hours like a deranged lunatic and, of course, both of his autobiographies, which did not cover any different times of his life, but instead differed only in the fact that anytime his name was said, one copy had black text and another had red. Van Ghoul clearly ruled her brother's heart. "Yes, I know."

Shaggy laughed. "Like, I totally deserve that. So, like, I'm totally jumping for joy to get a chance to spend time with the legend himself, y'know?"

"Then I don't see what the big deal is. You should do the show."

"But like, what will Fred and Velma say?"

"Do you remember what you told me when Mom said I could only bring one person to Fun Land with me?"

"I do. I said that if they were really your friend, then they would totally understand the situation that you were in. They may not like it, but ultimately it wouldn't be the end of your friendship."

Sugie simply stared at him.

"Yeah, yeah. Like, I get ya!" Shaggy grinned and ruffled up Sugie's hair, "Like, how did you ever get to be so smart?"

"That's easy!" Sugie said, trying to smooth out her hair again. "I just listened to everything that my brother ever said."

"That's real sweet, sis."

"And then I did the opposite!"

She grinned as her brother reached down and grabbed a pillow, taking a huge swing at her that was easy to dodge. She ducked under it and rolled on the ground, and launched to her feet. "You big goof! How do you ever catch anyone?"

Shaggy started to chase after her, and both of them were giggling madly. This was one of her favorite moments in life. See, she also had a secret that her brother didn't know. She loved Vincent Van Ghoul.

Now:

Velma was inside the library, and Ned was bored. It wasn't that she wasn't doing work that was important, but he couldn't really get any action shots. Even the most exciting montage music that he could find wouldn't change the fact that she was just leafing through some books. He had tried. So instead, he was focusing his camera on the area around him. He hadn't meant to capture some of the conversations that he did, but he couldn't help it.

"So," Daphne said, as she sat on a log by the river, "Do you think that Mr. F is on the level?"

Shaggy shook his head, throwing a rock into the river. "Like, no way man. Anyone who talks to you through a magic van isn't anyone you should ever trust."

Daphne closed her eyes and leaned her head back, soaking up the sun on her face. "And why is he hiding who he really is? I mean, Mr. F? We're not spies, y'know?"

Shaggy looked over at her. "Like, we're not spies, but what if he is?"

Daphne opened her eyes and looked at her friend. "You think he's a spy?"

Shaggy shrugged. "It makes sense, doesn't it?'

Daphne paused. "You know what? It really does. We can safely assume that Mr. F is not his real name, and he does seem to be leading us around like a bunch of idiots. It would also explain that tech he has."

"I didn't think that Walkie Talkies were that impressive of technology. Maybe I was wrong, though."

Daphne shook her head. "You think he's doing all of this with a Walkie Talkie?"

Shaggy shrugged again. "He could be."

"Well yeah," Daphne said, "But Delilah showed me some of her military tech and its way more impressive than a Walkie Talkie. Normally, someone has to hold a button to talk to the other side. Our conversations have been more natural, like a cell call." She paused. "It runs on cell data."

"I didn't think that Walkie Talkies ran on cell data."

Daphne shook her head. "No. The way that he is talking to us. That's why when we went into Treefallen we lost him. He is running off of cell data."

Shaggy smiled. He had always known that Daphne was not just the damsel in distress, but it always made him happy when she was able to show that she had some brains too. Situations like this didn't seem to happen much around her, especially when Velma was around. "That makes a lot of sense. I bet the rest of the gang would be very happy to hear it!

Daphne grinned. "You think?"

Shaggy nodded. "Oh yeah! Like, we're your best friends, we're totally gonna support you with what you think!" He paused. "But, we totally need to stay away from the Mystery Machine, just in case he can pick us up at all times."

Daphne nodded slowly. "I think we can do that. Let's go ahead and do that just now." She paused. "What do you think, Ned?"

Ned smirked. "Knew I was here, huh?"

"Do you know how many times I've seen eyes watching me from behind paintings? I think I've picked up a sixth sense in when someone is watching me."

Ned smirked. "I have some ideas myself on Mr. F."

Then:

Maggie, she didn't want to be called Sugie anymore, had moved into high school herself. She didn't have to worry too much about people comparing her to her brother, by the time that she got into high school, he was gone. She was about to graduate and needed to decide what she was going to do with her life, but she had no idea what even sounded like an acceptable way to live.

She had heard it all before. "You have your whole life to decide what you want to do, you don't need to rush," but she knew better. She knew that if she didn't plan out every single moment, then her life was going to be ruined. Her friends may have mocked her for it, but it didn't matter.

She was pacing right now, looking rather distraught at the papers in her hands. The wind was trying to wrestle them away from her, but she held them tightly; they represented her future. They were brochures that told her about the various different colleges that she could find. Her future was literally in her hands, but she had no idea where she was going to go. She knew that there wasn't anything wrong with Darrow University and that her brother had wanted her to go there, but she didn't want to. She wanted to go and experience what the world held in store for her. She wanted to see what else was beyond Crystal Cove.

She kept shuffling the papers in her hand, as if there was going to be some divine thing that told her what she should do. She scoffed at the idea, real life didn't work like that, there wasn't going to be some magical answer that told her what to do. No matter how much that she may have wished for it otherwise. Only hard work was going to achieve her goals and she needed to figure out what they were. Now.

Her pacing became more energetic, and there was, at times, a skip to them. She didn't seem to realize that she was doing it, and by the time that she realized it, she knew that everyone around her had seen her. She blushed slightly, and moved to the other side of a tree, hoping that no had seen her, but knowing that she wasn't that lucky.

She sighed, clutching the brochures to her chest, and took a deep breath. So what if people saw her, would it be worse thing that ever happened? It might have been, she wasn't sure.

She realized that she had to make a choice. She could spend the rest of her life, hiding behind a tree, like some crazy tree person, or she could walk out from behind the tree and faced the scorn of high school. It wouldn't have been the first time that she had faced it and her brother had faced much worse.

She smiled and walked out from behind the tree, and to her surprise, no one was pointing and laughing at her. In fact, it was almost as if the entire world had moved on, without her being the center of attention. But she knew that someone had to have seen her, and they were judging her.

"Heads up!" A voice called out.

A Frisbee flew by her, startling her. She nearly dropped her papers and was about to tell off the person who threw it, when she saw him running over to her. "Are you OK?" The boy had brown hair, and he was…gorgeous.

"My name is Wilfred," the teenager said, holding his hand out to her, "What's your name?"

Suddenly, there wasn't a doubt in her mind, she loved Wilfred.

Now:

Ned had moved on, continuing his shots, when he realized that he had stumbled upon a conversation with Rhett and Fred. He should've let his presence be known, but this was the only relationship in the group that he knew had any sort of conflict. Sure, the two would act as if there was nothing wrong with them, but it was clear to anyone who watched them for any length, that they did not like each other. Furthermore, it didn't take Ned a long time to figure out exactly what was coming between them, they were both in love with the same woman. In matter of fact, Ned felt that everyone knew this fact, with one exception, Daphne.

Fred was sitting by the Mystery Machine, looking at the van that he had been taken care of for a very long time. "Whatcha thinkin' Jones?"

He turned to look at Rhett, who had managed to pick up a toothpick from somewhere and stuck it in his mouth "Why are we doing this?"

Rhett shrugged his shoulder. "Y'got me. I've been trying to figure out why you all have been doing this for so long."

Fred shook his head. "Not the mystery thing. I understand that. I mean, why are we following this Mr. F?"

Rhett raised an eyebrow. "So it's not just me that thinks it's a bad idea, right?"

Fred sighed. "No. But we can't say that we haven't done well following his advice. In the past, we'd just stumble into mysteries, but now, we're being directed. I'm not going to lie, it feels good."

"I don't doubt that we're doing good work," Rhett said slowly, "But what if we're not being directed towards something, but instead directed away from something? What if he's not leading us to something, but away.?"

"You think that it has something to do with Mr. E?"

Rhett nodded. "I think that we're in the middle of some dangerous game. I'm just not even sure which side is the good side."

"Maybe there isn't a good side," Fred said thoughtfully, "Maybe there's just one side and another, both of which was doing bad things. We could just be pawns in all of this."

"Well," Rhett said, flicking the toothpick into a nearby trash can, "Isn't that just a cheerful thought?"

Fred sighed. "Never said that it was going to be cheerful. I'm just trying to be honest here. Something about this entire series of circumstances stinks, and I am not sure which end smells worse."

Rhett snickered. "I know which end does!"

Fred rolled his eyes. "Real mature, Red."

Rhett shrugged. "Sometimes, the old me comes out. Didja realize that you are the only person who calls me Red still?"

"Sometimes, I never forget the old you."

Rhett raised an eyebrow. "You never do. Not everyone stays the same, Jones. You don't spend all your time reading supermarket tabloids, do you?" Rhett turned and motioned to Ned. "Ask your new boyfriend here, he can tell you that people changes. Heck, he gets it all on recording, don't you?"

Ned had nothing to say to that.

Then:

Her wedding hadn't exactly gone the way that she had wanted it to. In fact, if it wasn't for Shaggy and his friends, there was a very real chance that the wedding never would've happened at all. She had heard all about Shaggy's life, and all about the men in masks pretending to be ghosts, but she had never thought that she would get a first hand look at it. Her wedding ring apparently had a map that lead to treasure inside of it, and her photographer had pretended to be the ghost of McBaggy Rogers in order to steal it. It was as absurd as anything she had ever heard her brother describe. But all of that was in the past, now, she was on her honeymoon.

They didn't have the money to really go anywhere nice, so instead they decided to start their life together by going to a local hotel in nearby Gaterburg. It wasn't the nicest place they could've gone, but it was interesting, just to hear the way that Wilford spoke. "And here," he said, waving his hand towards some woods, "is where I'll build the power plant." He smiled. He had a big idea to help the local economy by building a new power plant, but one that ran on solar power. He had actually spent his entire college career trying to come up with a fresh, new way to convert solar power into usable energy. He had decided to go into Gaterburg first, because it was a smaller town and the people who lived there was desperate to try anything that may help their economy pick up. He had promised to hire local citizens for the job whenever possible.

Maggie loved to hear her husband talk about his passion, but it did make her wonder something, did she have a similar passion for something? She was passionate about Wilford, that much was true, but that wasn't the same thing like his passion. She was worried that his passion was going to overshadow her's. She had gone to school in communications and it was clear that she was going to play a role in the power plant, but was that what she wanted?

She had thought to call Daphne, she didn't have time to talk to her about this at the wedding with the ghost and all of that, but she didn't want to bother her husband, not on her honeymoon. She was going to let her concerns drift away for a little while and focus on trying to have the best honeymoon possible.

They were in a lovely little diner, and she was glowing as the waitress came over. "Can I get ya'll something?" She asked with a drawl that Maggie could tell wasn't how she normally talk. She realized that the waitress had them pegged as out of towners and people from out of town were more willing to tip more if they thought they were getting some down home service. Maggie was impressed really.

"What's the best meal you have?" Maggie said with a smile, "It's our honeymoon!"

"Well, darling, get right outta town! I've got something just special for ya'll! We're known for our gator steak. Y'ever have any?"

Maggie shook her head no, but she wasn't actually sure that she wanted any. The waitress could see the worry. "How about I do this for ya'll? I'll go back yonder and getcha a taste, if you like it, order it, if not pass. And I'll toss in a free piece of cake for the special day."

Maggie and Wilford agreed that it was good, and when they tried it, they had to admit that the gator wasn't bad. And the free cake was to die for. For Maggie, she had to admit, she loved being married.

Now:

Ned had moved himself away from the others, and went into the library where he was surprised to see Velma and Scooby looking through newspapers. This actually surprised him for numerous reasons. For one, he didn't realize that Scooby was able to read. He also didn't expect to see Scooby decide to help out Velma, he tended to spend most of his time with Shaggy. It was easy for Ned to forget that the dog was friends with the entire group. Lastly, he was surprised because the newspapers that Velma was reading weren't old. Normally, she had to really dig into the archives to find the information that she needed, but this time, it seemed like more recent events would suffice just fine for her.

"You have a question, Ned?" Velma asked without looking up from her paper.

"You know me well," he said as he took a seat next to her. "Why are you looking for information in recent papers? You normally have to go looking deeper into history for this stuff."

Velma waved her hands towards a set of older papers sitting on an empty chair that he had missed. "I did, but I realized something, it didn't show up at all for a while. I asked the librarian, the ship didn't actually show up until the last few months. It was your normal stuff at first, a whispered word here, a drunken man's notice there. There were two kids at lover's land who swore that they saw the ship and then things started to go missing."

Ned raised an eyebrow. "OK, but that's all at night. I think we can understand that it was certainly not night when we saw the ship."

Velma nodded. "Very good. Now, tell me why."

Ned laughed. "Alright, I'll play. I think the pirates are getting bolder. When they realized that they weren't stopped at night, they launched a surprise attack in the morning."

Velma grinned. "Yep! Any guesses about the first attack that they launched?"

Ned scratched his chin as he started to think about it. "The police station?"

Velma applauded happily. "You got it. They chased off the police, and now the entire town is terrified and the pirates are taking whatever they want, whenever they want to do it."

"How bold are they getting?"

"They basically run the town now. Even the newspaper has changed it's tone. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't running the newspaper at this point. At least I understand why Mr. F sent us here. We have a slight disadvantage here now."

"If they have the police and the newspaper, they could have spies everywhere. We may be looking at trying to solve a crime in a town that is actively working against us."

Velma nodded. "Yep. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if they weren't already aware of us. I suppose that only leaves us with one question."

"And what is that?"

"Are we even going to try to solve this crime?"

Ned raised an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't we? It's what we do, right? Stop men in masks who pretend to be ghosts? We aren't going to turn tail and run just because it's hard, are we?"

Then:

Maggie sighed as she looked over the paperwork for the power plant. It had been going very well, and she had found that there wasn't much in the way of work for her to do with it. There was some real initial issues getting the people of Gatorsburg to join up with them, but now that they've gone ahead and gotten everything up and running, her life was surprisingly simple. She didn't have to do much of anything, but still, she was being told how important that she was to the project. She was bored, and she really wanted to do something new with her life. She was going to have to do something and she had just asked Wilford for a private word.

She paced in the office, and sighed when her husband walked in. "What's bothering you, baby?"

She sat down. "I think I need a break."

Wilford went pale. "Wh…what did I do? What's wrong with us?"

Maggie shook her head quickly. "NO!" She screamed the word, but didn't intend to, "I didn't mean us. You're the best husband that I could ever hope for."

"Thank goodness," Wilford said as he placed his hand over his heart. "I think you nearly killed me."

Maggie grinned and gave her husband a quick kiss. "I'm sorry, silly." She waved her hand around the office. "I meant a break from all of this."

"What exactly are you looking for?"

She sighed. "I need something else. I want to live out my dreams."

"OK. What are they?"

"I want…adventure, I guess."

Wilford smirked. "If you start to break out into song right now, I'm going to have to ask for that divorce."

Maggie smacked him on the shoulder. "Jerk. I'm not going to break into song." She paused. "Probably."

Wilford grinned. "Fair enough.

Maggie smiled. "You are the best husband, you know that?"

Wilford shrugged. "I try. But it's easier when you have the best wife in the entire world."

He sat down and glanced at some paper work. "Are you going to leave?"

"I think something just for the weekends," she said, "but I really don't know what I am going to do."

Wilford placed a hand on his cheek. "What about your brother? Have you given any thought to asking him for help?"

Maggie shook her head. "I don't really want to go that route. What I am going to do, call him up and beg to be a third wheel for him and his friends?"

Wilford shrugged. "It's the best idea that I have. He's the one that knows things, you know."

Maggie sighed and stared at her phone. Her husband was being honest, and it was a good idea, but she didn't want to beg someone else for help. But what was she hoping was going to happen? That someone was going to put out a classified ad? That someone was just going to call her up?

Maggie stared at her phone, helpless in thought, as it started to ring.

Now:

Ned held the camera steady as Velma smiled slightly, and Ned was really concerned that she was going to be sick. Again. It was a pretty normal thing for her to get sick before the cameras started to roll. But she had already done that once. But given that normally it was just Ned watching her, and now the entire gang was watching it, it wouldn't have surprised him if she got sick again.

She took a deep breathe and motioned towards the ocean. "Once upon a time, the town of Brayfield was harassed by pirates."

She smiled. "For years, they would come and take off with whatever they wanted. It seemed pretty par for the course of life at that time, and then was put down hard when the United States first started up. Their small navy was enough to be able to stop the pirates. At this point, the pirates were sent to jail or to Davy Jones locker. They managed to sink the ship and it rested on the ground of the ocean until it disintegrated and was completely looted. All seemed to be forgotten, to the point that I could only find one mention of it after 1776. That is until years later. How many years, you may ask? A lot. It was pretty much ignored until three months ago. That is when the first attack happened."

"It was described as an amazing image when it first came out. From the bowels of the ocean a ship slowly started to rise and it came out, mast first, and slowly revealed the entire ship. It was decayed, bits of wood was following off it and it didn't look like anything that should've been able to float. In fact, the ship had numerous holes in it and cannons could be seen. However, the cannons were not the worst thing that could be seen. Next to the cannons were three pirates, but they had clearly seen better days. Their skin was dripping off their bones, and they were growling, waving a sword towards the man who saw the entire thing. However, he was a drunk, and he was waved off, as the sole witness. It slowly sank back into the water."

"Slowly, the attacks started. It waged against a couple in a car, having taken everything from them. We've deduced that they were using this to try to slowly attack the town bit by bit. When they finally made their final launch, they had managed to make sure that they couldn't be stopped. The police seem to be under their control. There seems to be no stopping them. And we're going to try."

She sighed. "I'm honestly not even sure how to start this. They are being protected by something and the takeover seemed to be really easy. Someone is helping them. I think it's pretty interesting that someone has tried to stop this. Why are we the only ones who are here to help? How is it that the state or even federal government hasn't helped out? I hate to sound all conspiracy theorist but the truth is out there somewhere. The pirates are only the start of it all. There is something keeping them safe. That is what we are up against. But even then, there is something else that I really find interesting."

"The thing that I find the most interesting is that they are being lead by someone that we have seen before. They are lead by the Ghost of Red Beard the Pirate!"

"The Ghost of Red Beard? Jeepers!" Daphne exclaimed.

"Again!" Fred said.

"Wait? Whose Red Beard?" Ned asked.


	12. Episode 12:

Then:

Madeline Dinkley was sad. She was often times sad, especially when her sister solved a crime. She knew that it was silly an that she should've been happy, but she couldn't help how she felt. She was jealous. Velma was an amazing person, smart, willful, and everyone seemed to love her. Madeline felt that she was too awkward for people to really notice.

She was also rather bothered by the fact that Velma knew exactly what she wanted to do in life, and Madeline didn't have any ideas at all. Well, that was not quite correct, she had tons of ideas, but they never seemed to plan out quite right. All she knew was one very important thing; she wasn't going to become a mystery solver. She wasn't going to be the tag along sibling.

But she was also not going to be the sibling that didn't hang around her sister's friends. How could she avoid that when she was in love with Shaggy Rogers? Whenever he went out on a mission, she found herself worrying way more about him than her own sister. She felt bad about that as well, but she was going to try to make up with that. Granted, she chose an odd way of showing that, when she sitting on the front porch, next to Shaggy. "So," she said, staring dreamily at him. This type of stare was what had earned her nickname of "Doe Eyed Dinkley" but she didn't care. Shaggy had a special name just for her. "What are the plans for tonight?"

Shaggy shrugged. "Like, I'm not really sure. I think Velma is going to be making the plans tonight."

Madeline raised an eyebrow. "Really? I thought Fred normally made the plans."

Shaggy looked at her, his face full of confusion. "Like, why would Fred be making the plans tonight?"

"Uhm, because he's the leader. Right?"

"Like, not of my life, man. He's just a leader of Mystery Inc!"

"Right."

Shaggy raised an eyebrow. "Like, what do you think is gonna happen tonight?"

"You are going to go find a mystery to solve and unmask a man wearing a mask, right?"

Shaggy shook his head. "Like no way, man. Honestly, if I can go the rest of my life without ever doing that again, it'll be too soon."

"Then what are you going to be doing tonight?"

"Your sister didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?" Her sister had tried to say something earlier today, but Madeline was busy being sorrowful and trying see just how much eyeliner was too much. She didn't find that answer, nor did she actually talk to her sister about whatever it was that Velma wanted to say.

"Like, we're going out tonight." He could tell that she wasn't really grasping what he was trying to say. "Like, on a date?"

Madeline nodded dumbly as she thought this all the way through. She suddenly knew what needed to happen. "Oh. Well, I hope you have fun."

He rubbed the top of her head as Velma came out. But Madeline knew her life ambition. She would become a chef, because she knew that in order to win Shaggy, the way to his heart was through his stomach.

Now:

Fred sat in the Mystery Machine, head down on the steering wheel. "Red Beard? What is this, old villains week?"

Ned frowned, his seat reclined, a red baseball cap resting over his eyes. "You'll have to forgive me, but I am really not sure what you mean by that."

"Well, there was Harry the Hypnotist in Treefallen and now we're facing off against Red Beard again? It seems very much like déjà vu all over again."

Ned poked at the radio with his foot. "Almost like someone is leading us around by the nose, isn't it?"

"Just flat out stating things now, huh?" Fred said smiling. "Not even going to try to hide your suspicions from Mr. F?"

Ned shrugged. "Not much of a reason to," he said, sitting up and pulling his hat onto his head. He poked the radio again, "Not that it's going to start to talk to us now, are you?"

"I can if you'd like," Mr. F's voice came from the other end. The two men raised questioning eyebrows at each other, as the voice asked a question. "What did you find out?"

"We found that this is Red Beard. Again. For the third time." Fred's voice didn't indicate his anger, but his face certainly did. "And between that and Harry, it's starting to paint a pretty clear picture."

"Well, allow me to muddy that picture up for you," Mr. F said, "Don't forget I didn't want you to go into Treefallen. You all did that on your own."

Fred frowned. That much was certainly true. "You put us on that road. And now you've put us here? It's too much of a coincidence for me to buy."

"I'm not asking you to buy it. But I will say this, if you can take down Red Beard again, it will cost Mr. E a valuable member of his potential team."

"Are we just doing your dirty work for you?" Ned asked pointedly. "Thus far, you've lead us around the country, taking out different people, for reasons that are completely unclear. You are hiding who you really are, and you keep referring to a mystery man for us to stop. Why should we trust you?"

"I haven't lead your wrong yet."

"Yet," Ned said bitterly, "That's comforting. When exactly are you planning on betraying us?"

"I would never betray you all."

"And how can we be sure about that?" Fred asked. "You haven't given us any useful information about you."

"Because there are enough forces working against you all. I am trying to be the one thing that stops them. You are my instrument. You are the one thing that I believe can save the entire world."

"The entire world? You want us to save the entire world? Doesn't that seem like a pretty tall order for a group of friends who pull masks off people who dress like ghosts?"

"Maybe what you bring to the table is exactly what we need. But first, you have to solve the contest. You have to survive it."

"What contest?" Fred asked.

Then:

She was not going to become a chef. Turned out that she was unable to actually cook anything beyond a piece of toast without burning it. It was when she set the coffee maker on fire that it was decided that it would be best if she left culinary school, as it didn't quite fit into her life. This was not decided by her, but by the school itself, when it gave her back her full tuition with the promise to never try to cook anything around them again. She had to admit, it was probably the right answer.

She sat down on the front porch, same as she had years earlier when she found out that her sister had started to date the man that she loved. She still loved Shaggy, even though she hadn't seen him that often since he left to…do whatever it was that he did. She still didn't really get his lifestyle, but she got the feeling that he was keeping busy.

Of course, her sister was simply doing great at Duke. Madeline was proud of Velma, she really was, but would it have killed Velma to fail at something? Madeline knew the answer to that one; it very easily may kill Velma if she were to fail. And really, Madeline didn't want her to fail. She did love her sister. But still, it would be nice if she would let Madeline have the lime light.

She sat there, wind blowing through what was left of her hair after it had mostly burned away, and she was trying desperately to come up with a way for the lime light to fall to her. She was upset about her short hair, and she ran her hand through it. She also noticed that it had a slight red tinge to it, which was odd, as it had been dark brown, the same as her sister's. It would grow back, she knew that. She was smart; she just wasn't as smart as Velma, but who was?

She grumbled as she leaned her head back, eyes focusing on the moon. Velma could have easily worked for NASA if that was her goal in life. Madeline was smart, but she wasn't that smart. And she didn't think something serious was for her. After all, she had tried some serious cooking and that didn't work out. Where did you even find a not serious job?

She sighed and stood up, glancing at a puddle that had formed from the recent rains, silently cursing her look. Her mascara had started to run, and she felt that if anyone were to see her at this moment, she would just die of humiliation. But what else was there? No one who knew her was around except her parents, but that didn't stop her from feeling stupid.

Madeline found a small pebble and tossed it into the puddle, and glanced at the ripples that went around her image. She laughed, between the burnt, red hair and the running mascara; she thought that she looked ridiculous. In fact, she thought that she basically mirrored a clown. The puddle settled down, but the thought stayed fiercely in her mind and it settled happily in there. Her former sadness was gone, and she broke into laughter that may have made anyone who saw her think she had gone quite insane, but luckily for her, there was no one else around.

But this made her future clear. She knew exactly what she was going to do. She wanted to make Shaggy love her and while she couldn't cook, she knew something else that Shaggy loved; he loved a good laugh. And she was going to be able to provide that to him. In fact, it was the perfect idea, and she didn't know why she didn't see it at first, but it became the only logical answer. She was going to enroll herself in clown school and win her man with laughter.

Now:

Velma was sitting by the library on a bench, her legs pulled up under her as she started to read from another newspaper. "Like, I didn't think they would let you take that stuff outta the library," Shaggy said as he plopped down next to her. His feet were seemingly haphazardly stretched out in front of him. "Don't tell me, they gave you a library card?"

"HA!" Velma said, shaking her slowly. "If only it was that easy. I had to buy it."

Shaggy shrugged. "Honestly, that seems somewhat simpler to me. Like, you think this entire town is against us anyway, right?"

"I do," Velma said. "I'm not sure that I see the point in your statement though."

"If they are already against us, why wouldn't they want more information about us? Like, if it was me, I'd totally want to know as much about the people I was against as I could. I mean, isn't that why we're even here." He motioned towards the library. "To learn as much as we can."

Velma looked over at Shaggy and her eyes widened. "Shaggy, you are a genius!"

Shaggy raised an eyebrow. "Like, I'm the only one of the group who didn't go to college. Like, even ol' Scoob here went to dog school."

"It ras risgusting!"

Velma smiled. "Be that as it may, you're right. If they wanted to know what we were all about, why wouldn't they have gotten my information?" She paused. "Jinkies!" She exclaimed, "Why did they even bring me all of this information in the first place? They had to have known what I was looking for."

Shaggy smiled. "Like, I thought that would be obvious. Especially for a braniac like you."

"And what else have I missed, Mr. Rogers?"

"The entire town isn't against us. Like, do you really think we just went into the most evil town in the world?"

Velma closed her eyes. "You're right. Again. Why didn't I see that? Of course the entire town isn't against us. I mean, that ship was huge, but just how many people do you think was actually on it? It can't be the entire town. In fact, I would wager that it wasn't even more than a half dozen. How many people would it take to infiltrate key points in a town this size, really?"

Shaggy shrugged. "Not sure. But I really don't think about stuff like that. But does that give you an idea?

"It sure does!" Velma got to her feet and stared to pace excitedly. "We need to round up the others. I have some pretty big ideas here. Shaggy, do you think you can get us some scuba gear?"

"Like again? Didn't we just do that song and dance not too long ago?" He grumbled, "I think it's time that we just invested in some of our own and carry it around in the Mystery Machine."

"I don't think we have the room. I mean, when we were kids, there was only five of us, and we didn't use it to travel across the world. I think we've gotten too large to live out of the van." Velma smiled. "But we need those suits. I have a plan that will get to the bottom of this. But first, we need on that boat."

"Like, I was afraid you were going to say that."

Then:

She was not going to be a clown. It turned out that Madeline Dinkley was missing some very solid things that would've helped her in the career. For one, she was unable to ride a unicycle or even a bicycle. She tried very hard, but her life didn't seem to want her to be able to keep her balance.

That was OK, not all clowns needed to be able to do that. She tried to prove her clownhood in other ways. Her attempt at juggling left three people needing to see a doctor, herself included. It was considered the worse juggling accident that didn't involve a chainsaw or fire.

She also had tried to use a fake flower to squirt water into the face of a fellow clown. It didn't go the way that she thought that it would've. It all started normal enough, her fellow clown leaned down and smelled the flower. She tried to squirt it, but nothing happened. She squeezed the pump again and still nothing happened. She squeezed it again with more anger and she started to panic. Her last attempt was so hard, her hand hit into her stomach and she bent over in clear pain. This caused her head to dive into her fellow clown's head. Both of them fell into a lurch on the ground, and that was when the flower decided to squirt directly into the other clown's eyes. Doctors felt confident that their vision was going to return.

She also thought that there was a chance that she could do some magic. She had seen a trick once that was a joke. She had an audience member pull a card from the deck. While they were looking at that, she would switch out the deck with a comically large one and ask them to place the card anywhere in the deck. In her mind, this trick would've been impossible to blow, but she was utterly wrong. She lost their card. Every single time. It never dawned on her to have them pick from the comically large deck first and place that into the smaller deck.

There was another joke that she had learned where she would call for the audience to think of a card, any card, and then she would pull out a random card and ask if this was the card they were thinking of. It never was. She remembered years later that she had seen this trick on TV and that it would've worked out really well there. The punch line was for the host to say that it wasn't their card and then Madeline was supposed to say, "It wasn't your's, but somewhere in Boise someone's mind has been blown!"

She wasn't sure what her future held, but she had to accept one very important fact in her life, she just wasn't very funny. It wasn't her fault; none of her family was funny. Velma was funny sometimes, but that was mostly sarcasm and most people didn't view that as very funny, just more funny in the right moments. Madeline wasn't even really able to get that much together. She resembled her sister in looks, but not in brains or attitude, no, Madeline was much more willing to please and she knew that. Her sister was off being put on TV, and Madeline was still trying to decide what to do with her life.

She went back to the idea that the best way for her to win Shaggy over was to go through his stomach, but she had accepted the fact that she was unable to cook. But maybe she could find a way to win him over with a sweet tooth. Now all she had to do was figure out what was sweet.

She heard a buzz and saw an insect land on a flower near her, and inspiration stung her…no, struck her. She knew that Shaggy loved honey and if she had an endless supply, she could win him over. She would be a beekeeper.

Now:

Daphne and Rhett were walking through a small wooded area, hand in hand, a smile on their faces. To the casual observer, there would be no way for anyone to realize that they were deeply troubled. "I have never seen anything like that," Rhett said as he nuzzled his head against Daphne's cheek. "I'm legitimately worried about what's going to happen to us."

Daphne giggled softly, her voice just as low. "I know what you mean," she said, her eyes glancing quickly to the side, the first real instance that showed how concerned she was. They had agreed that they would seem like any other young couple going for a walk through the woods, so as to not arise suspicion. After all, if Velma was right, they could easily be watched at this exact moment.

Rhett grinned, and placed his hand on her cheek, drawing her face towards him, and kissing her other cheek. "So what's the game plan? This could just be another man in a mask like the last one was."

"Well, yes," Daphne said with a smirk that was not part of their game, "but the last time was about the terrorwood, remember?"

Rhett rolled his eyes. "Of course, that's what you say. But I'm telling you, Shaggy and I solved the issue."

Daphne nodded slowly, her lips pursed. "Oh yeah. The big strong men went ahead and saved the day, right?"

"Well, we did!" He laughed, as Daphne shoved her elbow into his ribs.

"Not so loud, big shot," She muttered, "We're supposed to look like we're in love."

"Well," Rhett said, as he nuzzled his nose into her hair, "That's going to be real hard, y'know?"

"Oh," Daphne said with a bemused tone, "And why is that?"

"Well, y'see, I'm engaged."

"Oh, is that so?" Daphne asked.

Rhett nodded slowly. "Totally. See, she's simply amazing."

"Is she?" Daphne said softly, a genuine smile on her face, "You know, if you keep talking about this mystery woman, a girl is likely to get jealous."

Rhett smiled, the hand that was holding her's let go and wrapped around her waist. "Well, I don't think I can handle that."

"Well, then you'll need to start to pay me some compliments, don't you think?"

Rhett pouted. "I'm slightly concerned. You don't think that you'll get a big head about this, do you?"

Daphne leaned into Rhett's body. "Well, I suppose that all depends on what you tell me, doesn't it?"

Rhett leaned in and breathed softly in her ear. "Well, I could tell you how beautiful you are. But I think that's really just cheap."

"Do you now?"

"Yeah," he said, "See, I love your brains the most. Your large heart. Your looks are an added bonus.

"Like, hey guys!" Shaggy said, crashing through the foliage. The couple jump apart from each other, Rhett moving in front of Daphne. "Velma has an idea."

Rhett sighed. "That's not very funny."

Then:

She was not going to be a beekeeper. She wasn't even sure why she thought that was going to be a good idea. She found out, pretty much on day one of her new job, that she was allergic to bees. She had never been stung by one before, so she wasn't sure how she would react. It turned out that she reacted by having her throat close up on her and she had to be saved by one of her co-workers. It was somehow worse than when she became a clown.

She was back at her parents' house, and again, was at a lost as to what she wanted to do with her life. She hadn't seen Shaggy in years, and she realized that trying to live her life to be with him wasn't doing her any favors. She hated herself for having done that in the past, and decided that whatever she did next, she was going to make sure that she did it for herself, not for any man.

The only problem was that she had no idea just what it was that she wanted. She picked up a newspaper and proceeded to read through it. There were various want ads in the paper before she looked down at one that struck her as something interesting. It was something that her sister wouldn't have done and this was also something that Shaggy wouldn't have cared about one way or another. She was going to become a nanny.

She picked up the phone and made the phone call. She honestly hadn't expected to get anywhere with this. She had no actually training to take over this route, but it had turned out that her various different careers had prepared her in ways that she didn't actually see coming.

Her career as a chef had taught her that she could perform one thing with pretty solid luck, she could make a mean peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The children that she was the nanny for loved how she made them. Who knew that she was able to make the perfect sandwich?

Her work with the clowns had taught her how to keep the children entertained. She had no idea how easy they were going to be keep amused. The adults didn't enjoy her act, but the kids ate it up. She was very impressed with how well she managed to handle them.

Handling them came easier because of her skills as a beekeeper. Even though she was barely around the bees, she did spend a significant studying them first. This lead her to understand how to make bees do what she wanted, and that lead her being able to use similar skills to make the kids do their homework. There is also a chance that she just was liked by the children and that is why they did it.

But for the first time in a long time, Madeline was actually happy with who she was. She had stopped trying to live a life for a man who would never see her the way that she wanted to be seen by him, and instead started to live a life that she never knew that she wanted. She loved these kids, and would've done anything for them.

But that still didn't fill all of her needs. She was happy, but there could've been more to her life. She was missing something, but she wasn't sure exactly what it was. But there had to be something else that could tell her what she needed.

She was back at her parents house, it was what she always did when she didn't know what else to do. What she didn't realize was that soon, a call was going to come that would change everything. But first, she had to overcome just one last hurdle in order to get it.

Now:

Shaggy paced around the inside of the library, as Velma went over the plan one more time. "Like, I think you're a bunch of loonies," he said. His dog nodded his approval to Shaggy's claim.

Velma shook her head. "It's not as crazy as it sounds," she said simply.

"Are you sure? Because it sounded like me an awful like you wanted to jump off a cliff onto a ghost pirate ship and then try to ride it when it sinks back underwater without the pirates on board catching you."

"When you word it like that, of course it sounds crazy," Velma said slowly.

"Like, what other way is there to say it, man?"

Rhett snickered, he couldn't help it. He sidled off to side of the room, and kept a look out at the door. Velma had assured them that there wasn't any listening devices that were kept here, and strangely, Shaggy echoed her thoughts. How he would know anything about that kind of stuff was beyond Rhett's understanding. He loved Shaggy, but that didn't mean that he didn't think that Shaggy was particularly dense.

There may not have been any listening devices, but Rhett wasn't about to assume that meant that they were alone. He was keeping a tight look at the door, making sure that no one was on the other side listening. He could tell by the way that Fred was staring at the window, that the leader of the group had similar thoughts.

Ned crossed his arms, and watched the entire ordeal unfold in front of him with glee. He understood what Shaggy was thinking, heck, Ned was thinking the same thing, but he also knew a universal truth that he was sure Shaggy also knew; Velma was going to get her way. It didn't matter that the plan was questionable, all that mattered was that Velma wanted to do it, so it would be done. The only question was, how many Scooby Snacks was it going to take?

Daphne sat down at the table, and absently started to pet Scooby behind the ears. She also thought that the idea was absurd, but she knew that it was going to happen, so they may as well get on with it. She had already went ahead and purchased the SCUBA gear, though she was concerned that they may have tipped their hand to Redbeard. Not that it really mattered, a confrontation was coming, and they needed to be ready. "Well, I think there's only one thing left to do," she said simply. She reached into her purse and held out a box. "Would you do it for a Scooby Snack?"

Shaggy looked over at Scooby and they both shook their head. Shaggy started to count on his fingers. He held up three, but Scooby shook his head and raised his paws up. "We'll do it for four Scooby Snacks."

"Reach," Scooby added.

"Yeah," Shaggy agreed. "Each."

Daphne sighed. She had to make it look like it was an ordeal for her to give in to their demands. If they knew that she would just give them the entire box to accomplish her goals, it would've lost something on her end. "Well….." she said looking over at Velma. "What do you think?"

Velma nodded. "I think we can do that."

"Deal," Daphne said.

Then:

Her life seemed to have reached a point where she was unsure what to do. The kids had gone back to school, and that meant that she was needed less and less. And once they had grown up a bit more, she wouldn't be needed at all. She knew that when she took the job, but that didn't make the impact of those thoughts any lighter. She had finally found a job that made sense for her, and now she realized that the job came with a built in expiration date. This was not something that she was ready to deal with.

Her sister's show had been cancelled and her parents were acting as if this was a great tragedy. As soon as she thought that, Madeline silently cursed herself. This was a big deal for Velma. Madeline had to remember that everything in the world didn't revolve around her, and she had to put others in front of her from time to time. She loved her sister, there wasn't a question about that, but it still hurt.

She paced in her old room, before she decided to pick up the newspaper and look over the help wanted section, but nothing seemed to jump out at her. She didn't even know why she was doing it, no one ever really put anything in newspapers any more, but it was a habit that she just couldn't break. She threw the paper on the bed in frustration.

"Pet owner?" She muttered. It was stupid thought, that wasn't even a job. But maybe that was what she needed, to become a pet owner, and prove that she was able to handle it. But the only question was what kind of pet did she want?

She had decided against a dog because she was worried she would look like she was copying her sister. She feared that she would come off that way anyway, but she was going to try to avoid it whenever she could.

She had also thought of a cat, but she wasn't sure how she really felt about it. She was worried that she would look like she was trying too hard not to be her sister that it would look odd. The fact that these thoughts were entering her mind in the first place made her really concerned that it was too far gone.

What about an iguana? Yeah, no.

She thought about a smaller animal, maybe a hamster of some kind, or a rabbit, but really, what was the point then? She wanted to have something that she could show off, and there wasn't much of a chance to show off a hamster. Sure, they looked cute in those little balls, but no one was really impressed by it. Still, she thought that they were rather cute.

There was always the chance that she could get something like a pot bellied pig, she had heard that they were smart pets who were cuddly and honestly, they were very cute.

But none of them mattered really, because she didn't know what she wanted. She didn't even know if a pet would be the thing that would fill her life. And if it didn't, what would that really mean for her? Then she would be stuck with a pet that didn't do what she had hoped for, and she couldn't just ignore it like it was a job that didn't work for her. She would be stuck with taking care of the pet like it was a child. It was a commitment and she wasn't sure that she was ready for that.

She sighed as she collapsed on her old bed, the newspaper crumpling under her. Just what was she going to do? And did it matter? These thoughts really started to bug her and drag her down. But salvation was coming in a form that she didn't expect it to take. Just as she was wondering where she was going to go from there, her phone rang.

Now:

Shaggy found himself standing on the cliff, looking out at the water. He was terrified, but that was normal for him. He should've held out for more Scooby Snacks. Why did he never hold out for more?

Scooby was next to him, and shivering as well. While the night air was chilly, the dog was shaking from fear. He was too much like his master. Other dogs may not had been familiar with the idea of going scuba diving, but most other dogs weren't Scooby. He was being brave, as brave as he was going to be, if only because his friends wanted to do this. Scooby really just wanted to go back home, and lay down in front of a fire, but he knew that wasn't likely to happen. Instead, he was about to jump into an icy lake.

Ned was also shivering, but it was with anticipation. Of all the things that he was able to do with Velma, this was by far the most dangerous and he was desperate to feed off the adrenaline that was sure to come. He hadn't realized it before this moment, but he was clearly an adrenaline junky, and he was about to get a real taste of it now.

Velma was shivering too. She was not one to be afraid, not really, but anyone who was contemplating what she was had to show some fear. It would honestly be insane to not be afraid of jumping off a cliff onto a boat. But that was what was called for in this situation, though she had spent a lot of time trying to figure out a way to avoid it. If they wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery and quickly, the best way was to sneak onto that boat. And when she saw the tape, she realized that there wasn't any pirates on the desk of the ship. Mystery Inc had a chance to sneak aboard from above.

Fred looked down with determination, his lips a tight straight line. If anyone could see his face, they would really question what he was about to do. He was determined to prove that he was still the leader of the team, and he was going start that off with this adventure. He was already planning his trap, and he was going to prove that he was still useful. Raw determination was going to take him far.

Rhett was not afraid. He had done things like this before, so it didn't bother him. He wanted to go first, but he realized that he needed to play rear guard, even though it pained him.

Just then, the ship appeared again, and it was awe inspiring as it had been the first time that it had erupted out of the water. But what Velma had told them was correct, there was no one on the deck of the ship itself. Any pirates that they saw was underneath the deck. This insane plan had a chance to work. Fred glanced at his friends and took a deep breath. If he was the leader of the group, he had to be the first one to go, whether he liked it or not. He took a step off the ledge, and landed on the deck below.

One by one, the gang jumped off, some with excitement, some, like Scooby, did so with more than a small whimper, but all of them had landed with two exceptions; Shaggy and Rhett.

"Like, no way, man! I can't jump onto that thing." Shaggy tried, he really did, but it felt as if his legs had turned to iron. He felt bad, as he watched his friends on the deck below him.

Rhett briefly felt like a bad person, as he pushed Shaggy off the cliff and onto the boat below. The feeling changed as he jumped down, landing next to Shaggy. Suddenly, fear and awe gripped him, as the ship started to sink beneath the waves, and they found themselves drifting further underwater.


End file.
